OCU "hierarch": We have only 80 chaplains in the army for 494 mandates

"Metropolitan" Ioann Yaremenko of the OCU explains why the OCU clerics do not want to go to the front. Photo: Ukrinform

The head of the "Synodal Department of Military Chaplaincy of the OCU" Ioann Yaremenko told Ukrinform that there are only 80 chaplains from his structure in the army, although the OCU is allocated 494 mandates. Another 40 people "cannot enter the post because of military bureaucracy".

He said that OCU clerics refuse to serve as chaplains because they are allegedly "demotivated" by the "crisis of relations" with the leadership of the AFU Military Chaplaincy Service of the AFU Commander-in-Chief's Office, which treats the OCU without due respect.

"Those whom we used to see as potential military chaplains, now refuse and say: we will wait until something changes. So, in a crisis situation, we will not fill one hundred per cent of these quotas with chaplains," Yaremenko explains.

At the same time, he says, the requirements for chaplains after the start of the war have significantly reduced. In particular, a person wishing to become an OCU chaplain should no longer have 3 years of priestly experience. The requirements for the level of theological education have also been reduced.

Nevertheless, Yaremenko believes that the reluctance of OCU clerics to go to the front is caused by the biased attitude of the army leadership towards the OCU.

"Unfortunately, there is not a single chaplain from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the leadership (of the AFU MCS – Ed.), and this is also our complaint, this is some kind of biased attitude towards the OCU," Yaremenko said.

Earlier the UOJ wrote that, according to the UGCC chaplain, priests do not want to go to the army.

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