Lawmakers of the Ukrainian parliament got into fight on Thursday after the legislature passed a bill that would force the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to change its official name, local media reported.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2018) Lawmakers of the Ukrainian parliament got into fight on Thursday after the legislature passed a bill that would force the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to change its official name, local media reported.A total of 240 out of 450 parliamentarians of the Ukrainian parliament voted earlier in the day in favor of a bill that, if signed, would require religious organizations with leadership in Russia to indicate their affiliation in their name. The legislation would force the UOC-MP to change its name to the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to the 112 Ukraine broadcaster, the fight began in the session hall after the announcement of the vote results.
"This was a deliberate provocation by [lawmaker Nestor] Shufrych and the whole opposition platform," Ukrainian lawmaker Alexey Goncharenkom from propresidential Petro Poroshenko Bloc said, as aired by the broadcaster.
On December 15, during a "unification council" that was held in Kiev, Epiphany Dumenko, metropolitan of Pereyaslavsky and Bila Tserkva of the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), was elected head of the new church. The UOC-MP refused to officially participate in this event. The authorities of Ukraine expect to get tomos of autocephaly from Constantinople in early January.
The Moscow Patriarchate described the situation as the "legalization of schism," stressing that it would have catastrophic consequences and affect millions of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and other countries.
