OCU Metropolitan Epiphanius announces plan to screen priests who switch from Moscow Patriarchate
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) will conduct background screenings of priests who have expressed a desire to join the OCU from the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (ROC), OCU head Metropolitan Epiphanius said, according to Ukrainian news outlet Volyn News on May 10.
These checks are needed to ensure that the church remains free of Russian influence, Epiphanius argued, adding that a number of parishes have switched from ROC to OCU jurisdiction in recent days.
"We see a tendency that priests are beginning to understand and realize, lose fear," he said.
“They were intimidated, they were bought, but gradually priests begin to support the decisions of their communities and join the OCU.”
Epiphanius added that if a priest did not openly preach the ideology of the "Russian world" and did not tarnish himself with this ideology, he would be accepted by the OCU.
"This can be verified very easily from the words of the community," he explained.
“When the community decides to move and the priest supports the community, it shows that he is a patriot, even though he was part of the Moscow Patriarchate for some time. I am convinced that there are still many priests there who are patriots of Ukraine.”
The OCU head noted that those clergymen and bishops who openly preached this ideology, who have Russian passports, but in the future want to join the OCU, must repent, renounce Russian citizenship, and renounce the ideology of the "Russian world.”
"Then there will be a corresponding decision on their admission to the OCU," he said.
“I see and hear that Ukrainian society is concerned about this. Therefore, we will check, do everything to ensure that such people, having come to the Ukrainian church, do not destroy it from within.”
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