DECR UOC on the opening of parishes abroad: Believers turn to us themselves

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Chairman of the UOC Department for External Church Relations, commented on the decision of the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to organize church communities outside Ukraine. This was reported by the UOC Information and Education Department.

The spokesperson of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church noted that all the decisions of the Council are dictated by pastoral necessity and new challenges for the Church, the decision on the diaspora being no exception.

"As a result of the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, about 7 million Ukrainians have already gone abroad. Many of them are believers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Some of them will return; others will stay. European officials now predict that about 2.5-3 million Ukrainians will remain abroad. Thus, we are facing another pastoral reality. I know many cases when Ukrainian believers went to the temples of the ROC or ROCOR in the quiet pre-war period, but then stopped going there due to the war, so now they do not go anywhere. Since the outbreak of war, our faithful from different countries have been appealing to His Beatitude to open parishes under his omophorion. We did not create this reality, but we must respond to it as shepherds. In any case, the task of our Church is pastoral care for our faithful, wherever they may be,” said Father Nikolai.

The Archpriest described the situation abroad with a quote from the Gospel: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" (Matthew 9:37).

“First of all, we are involving those priests who are based in different countries, and we are reaching out to them to organize parishes. Believers themselves are also turning to us. People gather in initiative groups. It can be ten, twenty, thirty people, and they write an appeal in any form to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine to open an Orthodox community in a city abroad and send a priest. Therefore, I draw the attention of those of our believers who would like to have a Ukrainian Orthodox parish abroad: you must write a letter to the Primate of the UOC, signed beneath by members of the future community," said the UOC spokesman.

A scanned letter to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry can be sent by e-mail to the DECR UOC ([email protected]) or to the Kyiv Metropolitanate ([email protected]). Other contacts can be found on the church.ua website. For additional consultations, you can refer to the personal page of Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich on Facebook.

It will be recalled that the UOC Council has announced the opening of new parishes abroad.