Half of ROCOR сlergy in Odesa did not attend assembly due to TRC officers

Diocesan assembly of the Odesa Eparchy of ROCOR. Photo: internetsobor.org

From March 17 to 18, 2026, a diocesan assembly of ROCOR(A) was held in Odesa under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky). However, a significant share of clergy of conscription age were unable to attend the event. Clergymen are afraid to go outside because of the activity of Territorial Recruitment Center (TRC) officers, and as a result, a number of parishes have now been left without services, the organization’s website reports.

Metropolitan Agafangel told participants in the meeting that attempts to secure deferments for clergy through Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) had effectively failed. Officials in Viktor Yelensky’s agency reportedly explained orally that reserving priests from mobilization was out of the question. Under the current requirements, in order to obtain such an exemption, religious organizations must provide data from the Register of Insured Persons confirming official employment within the religious body. ROCOR(A) stresses that its communities exist solely on donations and do not have the financial means to sign employment contracts or pay salaries.

In the final protocol of the assembly, the situation surrounding the conscription of clergy was described as “a struggle against religion and freedom of conscience.” The leadership of the structure insists that clergymen cannot take a second oath other than their oath to God, nor can they take up arms or shed blood, since this would lead to defrocking under church canons. According to the organization’s representatives, mobilization places pastors before a choice: to renounce God or become criminals in the eyes of the state.

If forced mobilization of clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia under Metropolitan Agafangel’s omophorion begins, the group says it will seek protection from international institutions. Since the center of the religious organization is registered in the United States, ROCOR(A)’s leadership plans to send appeals to the U.S. Congress and to human rights organizations. At the same time, the structure notes that many of its parishioners are now at the front, and the persecution of their spiritual mentors would be a heavy trial for the faithful.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Territorial Recruitment Center officers detained a teacher from the Pochaiv Theological Seminary.

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