Zelensky: The UOC has been excluded from Ukraine's Council of Churches
The president believes that UCCRO has expelled the UOC from its ranks, which is why "all the population" is against it.
In an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, President Zelensky assured that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) had been excluded from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO). In his opinion, this means that "all the population" is against it.
Commenting on Tucker Carlson’s accusations of dictatorship over the ban on the UOC, the president referred to the UCCRO's stance.
"Ukraine has a Council of Churches. This institution is the biggest in Europe… This is a very serious community where all the denominations, all the religions are its members. Also, the Moscow Patriarchate was also a member of the Council of Churches," Zelensky stated, apparently referring to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the "Moscow Patriarchate".
"The fact is that all the population is against the Moscow Patriarchate, however that may sound. But the thing is that nobody is closing anything – this is the Council of Churches, and they discussed and decided among themselves that they had excluded the Moscow Patriarchate from the Council of Churches. This was done only by the denominations. They do it themselves without any influence. So, the religious institutions made this decision," Volodymyr Zelensky assured.
At the same time, there has been no official information about the UOC’s exclusion from the UCCRO. On the organization's website, the Primate of the UOC is still available in the membership section. Moreover, there is no reference to his affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. His name appears under number 13 (the list is arranged alphabetically):
"13. Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Onuphry (Berezovsky) – Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine."
Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Zelensky, banning the UOC is Putin’s narrative.
