The Ukrainian parliament passed a bill banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (OUC-MP) on its first reading on Thursday.
This bill was passed with 267 of the 450 deputies voting for it, according to lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Agence France Presse reported. “Draft law number 8371 on the prohibition of religious organisations associated with the Russian Federation was adopted in the first reading,” the lawmaker said, per AFP.
#UPDATE Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation that would ban the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), as Kyiv vows to cut ties with institutions it considers aligned with Russia ➡️ https://t.co/yTJoFYYi25 pic.twitter.com/FdC80wGCNS
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 19, 2023
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, exercises nominal spiritual jurisdiction over the UOC-MP and has supported and blessed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AFP noted.
The bill needs to pass a second reading before it is sent to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his signature, the outlet reported. The bill itself, if it takes effect, would prevent the UOC-MP from using historic church property, the Kyiv Post reported. The UOC-MP protested the bill as an infringement of religious freedom and pointed to the multiple times that the church’s leadership condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, AFP reported.
UOC-MP declared in May 2022 that they were cutting ties with the Russian Orthodox Church over its support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Reuters reported. The UOC-MP’s leaders describe the church as “independent and separate” and claim that the government is persecuting them under false pretenses, Reuters noted.
Metropolitan Clement, a spokesman for the UOC-MP, told NPR in late September that many of the church’s members were fighting against Russia and that his church provides religious services for these fighters. Yet, he noted, the government continues to crack down on his church. “Access is closed now to clergymen and to many believers who could come to pray here even in Soviet times,” said the priest, referring to a historic Kyiv monastery complex.
Ukraine’s other Orthodox denomination, the fully independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine, had around twice as many members as the UOC-MP, according to data from 2021.