The number of Tomos adherents in UOC only decreasing, – religious expert
Statements about the number of parishes of the UOC, ready to transfer to a new church structure, do not correspond to reality, said Nikolai Mitrokhin.
The number of those willing to go to the future unified Church in the UOC has decreased, the sociologist, historian of religion from the University of Bremen, Germany, Nikolai Mitrokhin said in an interview with the "Echo of the Caucasus" on September 19.
According to him, for the summer period, which he spent in Ukraine, the number of those willing to transfer to the future church structure decreased rather than increased.
"When I arrived in June, they said about the ten bishops of the UOC who were going to transfer," Mitrokhin said. "It was calculated that 30% of the parishes would go immediately, - I'm speaking of public statements that were made in Ukraine by very different people. Actually, for the moment, for this week, we have 17 priests of the UOC, who support the creation of a unified church, and, in fact, that’s all for now. And two bishops who publicly announced their consent in July, but who did not come out with any public declarations after this agreement for two and a half months."
The expert admits that about 500 parishes will be transferred to the unified Church, but this will be approximately 5% of the number of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church now.
"In general, it won’t result in the domination of the future Church in the territory of Ukraine," concluded Mitrokhin.
Earlier, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian Parliament, Rostislav Pavlenko, spoke of tens of millions of believers who "do not see themselves in the Moscow Church". At the same time, the head of the UOC KP Filaret believes that the communities of the UOC will start transferring to the Single Local Church after it is recognised.
