Online poll asks Ukrainians about their church affiliation

According to the poll, UOC believers outnumber OCU supporters by nearly five to one. Photo: UOJ

On September 19, a Threads user named lisira asked Ukrainians which church jurisdiction they attend: “Which church do you go to in Ukraine – the OCU or the UOC? Just curious who goes where.” Within two days, the post had received more than 1,170 comments.

UOJ analyzed around 700 publicly viewable comments posted by 490 users. Among respondents who stated their affiliation, 56% identified with the UOC, 12% with the OCU, and 10% with the UGCC.

Another 36 commenters said they believed in God but did not attend church. Twenty described themselves as atheists or agnostics, 11 identified as Protestants, eight as neo-pagans, six as Catholics, and five as Jews.

Most UOC believers simply replied “UOC,” while some elaborated on their choice. “The UOC is my life, my support, and my hope,” one commenter wrote. “I have attended the UOC since childhood and still do today,” another said. One user specified that she attended the “UOC under His Beatitude Onuphry, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.”

OCU supporters more often cited the language of worship and political considerations in explaining their choice. “My conscious choice is the OCU. It is important to me to pray in my native language,” one user wrote.

The post sparked a heated debate. Around 25 commenters who did not state their own religious affiliation insulted UOC believers, calling them “servants of Russia” and posting comments such as “UOC-MP-FSB.” Some users responded that they “serve God.”

As the UOJ previously reported, Serhiy Dumenko, citing data from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), claimed that the OCU has 11 times as many parishioners as the UOC.

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