Head of Law Dept.: OCU has no grounds to be called UOC

Head of the Legal Department of the UOC Protopriest Alexander Bakhov

The Ministry of Culture resorts to deliberate manipulations and violations of the law, the head of the Legal Department, Protopriest Alexander Bakhov, explained in an interview with the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

There is no reason for the OCU to be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, stresses Fr. Alexander.

"The so-called newly-formed OCU has no reason to be called the Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, not only because there is a religious center with a similar name since 1991, but also because Tomos – the primary title document, which they should honor and fulfill, defines two names – ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ (OCU) and ‘The Most Holy Church of Ukraine’," he says.

The priest said, "In addition, Patriarch Bartholomew ‘blessed and proclaimed the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine’, while the Tomos was handed in to ‘the primate of the Most Holy Church of Ukraine’ and the text itself does not contain any mention of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

“The very fact that at the end of the common name in brackets they added ‘OCU’ indicates how they relate to their real name, which their father, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, defined for them. If you have been given a birth certificate with one name, you can no longer get a passport with another name,” he added.

According to Fr. Alexander, these actions are aimed at the destruction of the canonical Church and appear as raiding: “They’ve created a new religious center with a similar name and they are trying to substitute an existing religious center, with the property and religious organizations being transferred to the newly formed center under the pressure. Furthermore, in order to accelerate this process, the existing religious center must be moved outside the legal field and deprived of its own name.”

“Today, the Ministry of Culture does not have any legal grounds to forcibly rename the UOC and any such actions are illegal and violate the right to freedom of religion,” he added.

As the UOJ reported earlier, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine) officially entered into the state register under the dual name. The name of the legal entity – “Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)” fully coincides with the current name of the UOC.

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