UOC priests barred from chaplaincy in National Guard, – UOC

Despite assurances from the command of the National Guard that priests of the UOC will not be discriminated, they are still not allowed to the Chaplain Service. This was stated in an interview with Pershyi Kozatskyi by the deputy head of the UOC Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and other military formations, Archimandrite Luke (Vinarchuk).

He commented on the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which approved the Regulations on the Service of Military Clergy in the National Guard of Ukraine. This provision contains a clause that the chaplain service "does not allow priests whose spiritual centers are located on the territory of the aggressor country.”

"This order was published at the beginning of the last year, but until the moment of recruiting chaplains in the National Guard, the command assured us that it would not concern us,” noted the priest. "But at the time of the completion of the posts of chaplains it turned out that even at the request of the personnel that the chaplains should be occupied by the priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, nobody reckons with it, but guided instead by these discriminatory provisions of the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the introduction of the Chaplain Service."

After publication in the media about the discrimination of the UOC priests the National Guard made an official statement that activities of the UOC clerics was not prohibited and the clause above was not related to them.

However, previously the deputy commander of the National Guard for the work with the personnel Yaroslav Spodar declared that the UOC priests are not allowed to serve as chaplains referring to the aforesaid order of the MIA.