Ministry of Culture debarred the UOC the right of worships in Smaller Sophia

The Ministry of Culture debarred the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the right to hold divine worships in the church of Smaller (Warm) Sophia despite the fact such right had been earlier granted to the Kiev Patriarchate. It was reported by the UOJ source in the Ministry.

In February 2016 His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Onuphry requested the Ministry of Culture about it. However, the Ministry has recently turned him down.

The refusal was explained by the fact that by virtue of sociological studies of the last two years from 35 to 44% of Ukrainians identify themselves as the UOC KP parishioners, whereas the UOC faithful make up from 15 to 25%. Therefore, the UOC KP, according to the Ministry’s functionaries, is the biggest religious community in Ukraine. At the same time, the Kiev Patriarchate, as they say in the Ministry, does not have enough churches. For this reason the UOC KP was allowed to hold services in the church of Smaller Sophia.

It will be reminded such polls do not take into account church service attendance and participation in the Church Sacraments by parishioners. According to the official statistics of the Department for Religions and Nationalities, the UOC surpasses several-fold the Kiev Patriarchate in the number of registered communities. As of 1 January 2016 the UOC numbered 12334 communities, while the UOC KP – just 4921 ones.