Holy Synod of UOC reports illegal actions of Ministry of Culture to Prime Minister

July 20, 2016, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at its meeting adopted an appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman on lengthy registration procedure by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The appeal says that "unprofessional actions and inaction of the representatives of the Ministry of Culture do not only violate the rights of religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but also become an obstacle to the full exercise of their statutory activities."

It is reported that "registration was not made for more a year and a half, and then on June 29, 2016, the UOC received a letter with remarks. However, together with the documents themselves the officials returned the packages of documents for registration and statutes, which is against the law. "The proposed remarks ignore the traditions and the internal settings of the Orthodox Church, are contrary to the statutes already registered and do not have a legal basis," stresses the Information and Education Department.

Recall, from December 2014 to May 2015 thirteen statutes of religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were filed for registration in the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. Only two of them have been registered so far.  

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