Shostatsky again complains of personnel shortage in OCU
The head of the Khmelnytskyi eparchy of the OCU has once again acknowledged an acute shortage of clergy – when communities “transfer” from the UOC, priests refuse to join the OCU.
Speaking on the Khmelnytskyi television channel TV7plus, Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky) once again raised the problem of personnel shortages in the OCU, a subject he has spoken about repeatedly before.
According to Shostatsky, when communities move from the UOC to the OCU, “the faithful come, but the priests stay behind – they still do not know what they are waiting for.”
He insisted that the personnel problem had existed even during his time in the UOC, but that it is far more severe in the OCU: “As of today, we do have a personnel problem. I served as a bishop for 23 years in the Moscow Patriarchate, and there was always a shortage of priests there as well. All the more so today, when parishes are joining the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
In addition to the lack of clergy, Shostatsky also pointed to a shortage of regents and church choir directors, calling this another serious issue: “There were times when the problem was not so much with clergy personnel as with those who should lead the service, who know the Typikon, who will read, and who will sing.”
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Shostatsky complained to the Athonite monks about “problems” with UOC priests.
