A. YURASH: IF A MAJORITY ARE FOR TRANSFER INTO A UNITED LOCAL CHURCH, THE PRIEST'S OPINION IS UNIMPORTANT
Union of Orthodox Journalists, 18 November 2018
If a priest opposes the decision of a religious parish regarding transfer into another confession, he cannot go against the majority of believers, an official of the Ministry of Culture thinks.
A priest is simply a member of a parish, without any advantage in voting, declared the director of the Department for Affairs of Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, Andrei Yurash, in a commentary on the Ekspres website.
"The priest has one vote. He is simply a member of the parish, without any advantages in voting and therefore he cannot go against the decision of the majority of believers. If he does not agree with a decision of the religious parish, then he should simply leave that parish," Andrei Yurash declared.
He added: "In article 8 of the Ukrainian law 'On freedom of conscience and religious organizations' it is specified that a parish has the right to freely change its jurisdiction. But the law does not prescribe a mechanism for how this should occur. Therefore a draft law No. 4128 'On introducing changes into the Ukrainian law "On freedom of conscience and religious organizations'" which prescribes in detail how a change in jurisdiction of a religious parish should occur."
As the Union of Orthodox Journalists has reported, earlier the director of the Department for Affairs of Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, Andrei Yurash, declared that as soon as bill 5309 is adopted, each religious parish "will be required" to reregister. The reregistration of the 19,000 Orthodox religious parishes located in Ukraine will become the "objective consequence" of the legislative decision. (tr. by PDS, posted 20 November 2018)
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