Synod of UOC-KP decides to support bills Nos. 4128, 5309

The Kyiv Patriarchate decided to support bills Nos. 4128 and 5309 on introducing amendments to the Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" at the "synod" on October 21. The decision is recorded in Journal No. 28, reports the official website of the UOC-KP.

"To once again attest the support of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate to the proposals set forth in bills No. 4128, No. 5309, No.6642 and No. 6696," Journal No. 28 says. "To ask the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andrey Parubiy, to submit these bills to the Parliament session, and to ask people's deputies to support these bills with possible consideration of practical proposals for their improvement."

Bill No. 4128 grants the right to vote at community meetings to persons who have not been admitted to the management of the religious community, i.e. legitimizes church raiding.

Bill No. 5309 proposes to amend the name of religious organizations whose governing centre is located in the country recognized by the Verkhovna Rada as an aggressor country.

As for bill No. 4511, the "synod" of the Kyiv Patriarchate decided not to support it.

In that regard, Journal No. 28 says: "Given that it is possible to introduce special state control over the activities of religious organizations with a governing centre in the aggressor state, as provided for in bill No. 4511, it may serve as a precedent for state interference in the internal affairs of all religious organizations, despite the justified criticism of such a novelty, including by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko; given that bill No. 5309 deals with the same subject matter but does not affect the fundamental principle of the state’s non-interference in the internal affairs of religious organizations, – to ask the authors of bill No. 4511 to withdraw it from consideration."