The Ukrainian parliament on Jan. 17 passed a bill that allows a parish to change affiliation of its church if two-thirds of parishioners agree to it.
The law answers an urgent need.
The united Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created earlier in January, ending the 300-year-old subservience to the Russian church. Now, thousands of parishes affiliated with the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox church will have a chance to join the new church – or not.
The Russian church, as well as the leadership of its Ukrainian branch, doesn’t acknowledge the new Church of Ukraine.
Out of some 18,100 Orthodox parishes in Ukraine, 12,000 are affiliated with the Russian-subordinated church. But since the beginning of January, some 70 of them already changed allegiance to the new, independent church.
In the past, when the parishes of the Moscow-subordinated church in Ukraine decided to switch allegiance, it was often surrounded by a scandal, with the church claiming their parish was stolen from them. The new law, No. 4128-d, systemizes the rules of switching allegiance for parishes. It was supported by 229 members of parliament, with the minimum 226 needed.
New regulations imply that the decision to change the subordination of a given church is made by amending the statute during a general meeting of the church’s religious community. The religious community consists of the parishioners of a given church, and only they are allowed to decide the religious affiliation of their parish. All decisions are to be voted with a two third majority, including inclusion or exclusion of new parishioners.
The law states that a part of a community that does not agree with the decision to change its subordination has the right to form a new religious community.
According to Ukrainian legislation, official religious institutions do not own any property, with a specific church being leased by the state to the parish, which chooses its own affiliation according to the will of its parishioners.
The 38-member Opposition Bloc faction in parliament was the only group against the law, voting zero in favor and 29 against. The 24-member Vidrodzhennya faction mostly abstained from voting, with one vote in favor and one against.
The recently established Orthodox Church of Ukraine gained official independence on Jan. 6, receiving the signed decree of autocephaly, or “tomos,” from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I in Saint George’s Cathedral in Istanbul.
