I wonder what form this will take. Will it mean the UOC-MP cannot own churches, monasteries, and other property? Will it mean it's bishops will have no choice but to either join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the EP or move to Russia?[/quote]
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It will be very interesting to find the answers, for sure.
With relevance to the Ukraian government's decision, here is a something lifted from:
https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/vikt...f-relihiynykh-orhanizatsiy/32645561.html.....................................................................................
".......And here's what Victor Yelenskyi, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, (stated):
"My opinion is that it is not about bans and the division of society, but about ending the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is not the instigator of aggression against Ukraine, but a full participant in it. It is about ending this influence, about dismantling the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate. But in no case is it about the fact that people who have been members of this church until now will not have the opportunity to profess their faith and express their religious feelings in a dignified way.
Submission to the Moscow Patriarchate is not part of the Orthodox faith. The hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate know very well what they must do in order to leave the Moscow Patriarchate. Hundreds of their priests and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of their laity turn to them with these requests, and even supplications.
If they do not want to break with the Moscow Patriarchate, then they are thereby driving the situation deeper. Thereby, they intensify confrontation with society and intensify confrontation with the state."
- Ukraine is proud of its level of religious freedom, which was achieved during these 30 years. People who are driven from Russia, Belarus, Central Asia, and many other countries for their religious beliefs find their refuge in Ukraine. We have never banned anyone and are not banning any Orthodox church. We are cutting off contact with the Moscow Patriarchate. I repeatedly asked hierarchs of different levels and degrees: "Why is this connection with the Moscow Patriarchate so valuable to you? What is the value of a connection with a figure who, for 600 days of Russian aggression against Ukraine, did not find a single word of sympathy for the parents and relatives of more than 500 children who were killed by the Russian aggressors? Who directly says: "Go and kill, and for this all your sins will be washed away" (obviously, this is about the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill - ed.) . How valuable is this connection to you?". I have never received an answer to this question.
But the priests who serve in the province and even in Kyiv, the lay people who go to this church, have an answer to this question. And they repeatedly turned to their holy superior and said: "We are not required to renounce the symbols of the Orthodox faith, we are not required to renounce the truths of the seven councils of the undivided church."
What are we talking about? What are we fighting over? Over what? That we will keep in touch with the killers?"
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The comments above are very striking and revealing to me........
It seems that once tradition, canonicity, and hierarchical identity becomes so ingrained and prioritized in a religious institution, they can supplant the whole reason that the institution exists.........let's not kid ourselves, many of those who belong to the MP are reluctant to disagree or criticize MP behavior because they fear no longer being " Orthodox". Such are the dangers of insular religions.
