Filaret intends to request Rada to rename UOC
The Kiev Patriarchate will appeal to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to adopt a law that there is only one Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, said its head Filaret.
According to the UOC KP leader, the unified Ukrainian Church will be named the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and its second name will be the Kiev Patriarchate, reports the "Radio Liberty".
“What will we demand? It is that in Ukraine there will be one Ukrainian Orthodox Church and that the ROC will not hide under the name "Ukrainian", being essentially Russian. And, therefore, we will request the Verkhovna Rada to adopt a law that in Ukraine there is one Ukrainian Orthodox church, and another Orthodox church should be called the Russian Church. All the more, since they perform services in Church Slavonic, read sermons in Russian, and protect Russian interests in the east,” Filaret said.
He also stressed that the unified Ukrainian Church will be named "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church": "The name is ‘the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’. The second name will be ‘Kiev Patriarchate’.”
As the UOJ reported, earlier the representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the World Council of Churches, Archbishop Job (Getcha) of Telmessos said that the new church structure in Ukraine would be named “the Orthodox Church in Ukraine”. “Not ‘the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’ because the Church is one,” said Archbishop Job. “It belongs to Christ, and not to any nation or state.”
