Zoria warns of a new wave of “transfers” to OCU
The recognition of the OCU by the authoritative Local Churches will definitely affect the consciousness of believers, “who still remain in the MP”, the “hierarch” says.
Transfers to the OCU are activated after the law on the involuntary renaming of the UOC is enacted, and so far the potential for the second wave of transfers is “accumulating”, said the spokesperson for the newly formed church structure Eustratiy Zoria in an interview with ‘Glavkom”.
According to him, there are many objective reasons for the fact that recently the process of transfers to the OCU has noticeably slowed down.
“The registration of the statutes in the new edition is carried out by the RSA,” he explained. “Probably, in half of the regions, there are no appointed heads. And given all this pressure, it is much more difficult for those who are currently in the status of temporarily acting to make decisions than for the appointed leaders of the regions. Because a person knows today he is acting and tomorrow he will no longer be acting And to take responsibility for complex decisions, knowing that there will be pressure and possible lawsuits, – not everyone will decide on this.”
Zoria noted that the transition process is wave-like, and "first of all those communities that had been prepared for this for many years internally" and for whom "the external point – the Tomos and recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch" – was important, transferred to the OCU.
“Now the potential for the second wave is accumulating. A critical mass is now accumulating. Especially after the recognitions that happened, and which will happen from the side of the Local Churches. Without a doubt, this will affect the consciousness of believers and the clergy, who still remain in the MP. I think that sooner or later there will be a very big second wave,” the “hierarch” emphasized.
At the same time, in his opinion, the catalyst for the new wave will be the law on the forced renaming of the UOC.
“These communities will face a choice. They will have to hold a meeting and choose a name – either they will be Ukrainian, or they will be communities of the Russian Orthodox Church. I think that then a lot of communities will see the light and many parishioners will put uncomfortable questions to their priests: "Father, you’ve told us 25 years that we are the Ukrainian Church. And now it turns out that we will be the Russian Church?" summed up the representative of the OCU.
We recall that earlier the spokesperson for the UOC Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich noted that “over the past year, the media has only talked about the fact that now everyone will run away from the UOC, everyone is just waiting to do it. However, time passes, and the UOC for some reason won’t break up.”
