Lawsuit filed to liquidate Kyiv Metropolis of UOC-MP

Head of DESS Viktor Yelenskyi announced this at a briefing at Media Center Ukraine, reports a Ukrinform correspondent.

“The lawsuit was already filed on Friday. It was submitted, as prescribed by law, to the High Administrative Court. The court will consider it,” Yelenskyi said.

He noted that the court proceedings will take place in accordance with the established procedure. According to him, DESS will do everything possible to ensure that this issue is not “drowned” in legal spam, as such attempts are already being observed.

The Head of DESS explained that if the lawsuit is satisfied by the court, the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP will be deprived of its legal entity status and lose its right to legal subjectivity.

“This means that the parishes of this church will no longer have a center in the form of the Kyiv Metropolis. At the same time, this does not mean that the parishes must join another church. The state does not require this. If they wish, they may remain independent,” Yelenskyii explained.

As reported, on July 24, the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP received by mail an order obliging the organization to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church within a month, by August 24.

From May 20 to July 8, DESS conducted a study on the presence of signs of affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP with a foreign religious organization whose activities are banned in Ukraine under Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations.”

According to the results of the study, the service concluded that the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP is part of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), whose activities are prohibited by law in Ukraine. The statute of the Kyiv Metropolis contains signs of its belonging to the UOC, which is linked to the ROC. The ROC has the right to make binding decisions for the Kyiv Metropolis on church and organizational matters, and the leaders of the Kyiv Metropolis are obliged to be members of the governing bodies of the ROC.

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