DESS finds Zaporizhzhia Eparchy affiliated with ROC

Clergy of the UOC’s Zaporizhzhia Eparchy. Photo: hramzp.ua

Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) announced that it had completed its review of the UOC’s Zaporizhzhia Eparchy for possible affiliation with Moscow. This was reported on the DESS website.

The government agency claims that such signs of affiliation are indeed present. In particular, it determined that the administration of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy is a structural subdivision of the UOC and forms part of the Kyiv Metropolia. According to the officials’ reasoning, since they consider the Kyiv Metropolia to be affiliated with the ROC, all structures that form part of it – including the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy – are likewise affiliated.

In addition, DESS cites as a sign of affiliation the fact that the ROC Statute provides for the head of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy administration to be a member of the ROC’s statutory governing bodies.

As the UOJ reported, the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy previously responded to DESS’s statement that it had found ties with the ROC.

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