By Kostas Onisenko
Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine asked the leadership of the Ukrainian state to protect the choice of the faithful of those parishes which passed to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
According to the head of the Ukrainian Church during a press conference, about 600 parishes have moved to the new church since its inception, but since the change of government in Ukraine in 2019, this process has stopped as encountered a number of obstacles mainly related to litigation in the local parishes.
According to Metropolitan Epiphaniy, some representatives of the Russian Church as well as government officials are involved in this process.
Metropolitan Epiphaniy stressed that other parishes are expected to gradually move to the Ukrainian Church, but asked the government for support so that this process can take place.
“We are not asking the government to help us. We ask the goverment to protect the choice of those believers who have decided to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Epiphaniy said during a press conference.