NEW LOCAL CHURCH WILL BEAR NAME "UPTs"—KIEV PATRIARCHATE SPOKESMAN
Archbishop of Chernigov and Nezhin Evstraty (Zorya), the press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UPTsKP), declared that the Verkhovna Rada should adopt a law according to which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate should change its official name to Russian Orthodox Church.
He said this during a press conference on Friday, answering a question about the legal nuances of the subsequent name, inasmuch as legally the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is attached to the Moscow patriarchate, Ukrainskaia Pravda reports.
He said that after the granting of the tomos, the local church officially will be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and this is not by the wish of the UPTsKP or the UAPTs but is a decision which was discussed and agreed with representatives of the ecumenical patriarchate.
At the same time, he specified that the Orthodox churches in their official labels may indicate additional names, such as Kiev Patriarchate, Autocephalous Church, and so forth.
"As regards the church of the Moscow patriarchate, which uses the name Ukrainian Orthodox Church, then the Verkhovna Rada has for more than a year had for consideration draft law No. 5309, which requires religious organizations whose center is located in an aggressor country to reflect in their full official name that religious organization of which they are a part," the archbishop said.
He noted that the document prescribes what are the indicators that an organization is a part of another religious center.
In particular, there is a connection that is spelled out in the charters of both religious organizations, specifying administrative functions that are obligatory for execution, and representatives of Ukraine have the right of participating in the charter activity of the Russian Orthodox Church, and they have an effective vote in questions, and the like.
"Moscow is upset because of this law, and therefore in December of last year the Bishops' Council of the RPTs adopted a resolution on changes in the charter of the Russian church which specifies that the center of the UPTsMP is located in Kiev," the representative of the UPTsKP said. "They think that if it is specified in the charter that the center is located in Kiev, then Ukrainians will believe that it is not a Russian church," he added.
Archbishop Evstraty emphasized that despite this, the charter says that the UPTsMP is a part of the RPTs, the decisions of its councils are obligatory for execution in Ukraine, and Onufrey participates in sessions of the Synod.
"So, is the center in Russia? Yes it is! And when they say that they only pray for the patriarch but have nothing to do with the Russian church, then this is untrue. Ukrainians should choose their church knowing the whole truth," he said.
The hierarch noted that the UPTsKP will ask the Verkhovna Rada to adopt this law so that the UPTsMP would be called the Russian Orthodox Church.
He added that the change of name will not signify any kind of persecution, restriction or limitation, as Russian propaganda describes it.
The representative of the Kiev patriarchate noted that the "sign of the UPTs" should not deceive. "Or are they embarrassed to be called Russian? If they are not embarrassed, let them call themselves the Russian church and if they want to be Ukrainian, then let them be Ukrainian in essence," Archbishop Zorya [sic—it is a violation of etiquette to refer to an Orthodox bishop in this way, using his family's surname—tr.] declared. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 October 2018)
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