CRIMEAN DIOCESE OF UPTsKP INTENDS TO REREGISTER UNDER RUSSIAN LAWS
Religiia v Ukraine, 25 May 2015
UPTsKP Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea Kliment, in an interview with Glavkoe, described the kind of conditions on which it is possible to preserve the church of the Kiev patriarchate in occupied Crimea, proceeding from the current realities, Religiia v Ukraine reports.
"In any case, legal reregistration is necessary because without it several churches will be cut off from electricity and water and there also is a threat of loss of property. We already have precedents. In the future, the problem will lie in the fact that I will not be able to make payments not only for utilities but also for services of security firms," the archbishop explained.
He noted that for a year the UPTsKP in Crimea has managed to survive without reregistrtion and for a year the church has taken the position that Ukraine will protect them on the occupied peninsula. "I have appealed both to the president and to the government, to the national security council and the commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for human rights, Lutkovskoy. But unfortunately the leadership of the government of Ukraine has done nothing to explain to religious leaders how they should act in those conditions in which they find themselves," Kliment summed up. He said the number of parishioners of UPTsKP Crimean churches has increased since the annexation of Crimea. Thus on the day of Pascha 2015, about 5,000 persons came to the churches.
We recall that at the present time the official website of the UPTs of the Moscow patriarchate displays a map of Ukraine without Crimea and it specifies the Russian membership of parishes. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2015)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.