SOCIOLOGISTS: MAJORITY OF POPULATION OF UKRAINE IDENTIFY THEMSELVES WITH KIEV PATRIARCHATE
Religiia v Ukraine, 10 April 2015
On the website of the foundation "Ilya Kucheriv Democratic Initiative" the results of a study were published, which was conducted in 11 regions of Ukraine by the foundation jointly with the sociological service "Ukrainian Sociology Service" from 25 December 2014 to 15 January 2015, commissioned by the International Center of Policy Studies. The data published give evidence that a majority of the population of Ukraine identify themselves primarily with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate, Religiia v Ukraine reports.
During the study, 4413 respondents were questioned (400 in each of the regions of Ukraine, 401 in Transcarpathia and Bukovina, 402 in the center, and 410 in Polesie).
Project developers identified eleven historical regions for the survey: (1) Volhynia (Volyn and Rovno provinces); (2) Galicia (Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov, and Ternopol provinces); (3) Southwest (Transcarpathia and Chernovitsy provinces); (4) Podolie (Vinnitsa and Khmelnitskii provinces); (5) Polesie (Zhitomir, Kiev, Sumy, and Chernogov provinces); (6) Center (Cherkasy, Kirovograd, and Poltava provinces); (7) Slobozhanshchina (Kharkov province); (8) Lower Dniepr (Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhie provinces); (9) Black Sea Coast (Nikolaev, Odessa, and Kherson provinces); (10) Donbass (Donetsk province); (11) City of Kiev.
The survey was not conducted in Luhansk province and in annexed Crimea. The survey used a quota selection that represented the population of identified regions of Ukraine by region, type of settlements, age, and sex, over the age of 18. The maximum margin of error for each region does not exceed 5%.
Among the conclusions reached are the following:
"The majority of the population of Ukraine identify themselves primarily with the Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate—44%; 21% identify themselves with the Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate; with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 11%; 8% are followers of other religions and 9.5% are atheists. . . .
"Laity of a majority of the regions identify themselves with the Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate. The only region where a clear majority consider their allegiance to be to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate is the Donbass—55% (represented in the survey by Donetsk province). In Galicia, the majority of the population belong to the Greek Catholic Church (67%). The most heterogeneous complex of believers turns out to be in the Southwest, where 34% identify themselves with the Greek Catholic Church, 32% with the Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate, and 22% with the Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate. Atheists are just in Slobozhanshchina (19%) and the Donbass (17%).
"The idea of the creation of a United Local Orthodox Church finds support in the west of Ukraine, in Volhynia, Galcia, and the Southwest. In the other regions, indifference or an ambivalent attitude predominates, but a negative attitude toward this is also insignificant. On the whole, throughout Ukraine 28% support the idea of the creation of a United Local Orthodox Church, 14% oppose it, 35% are indifferent, and another 23% do not have a settled opinion.
"As to the recognition of which church would be able to have a claim to be a "united church of the Ukrainian people," the greatest percentage was given to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate, 37%, although 31% think such a church is "one of many churches of Ukraine." In Galicia, the "church of the Ukrainian people" is considered to be the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. But the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate is not recognized to be "the one Ukrainian [church]" in any of the regions.
"In all Ukraine, with the division of believers among several Christian churches, there is no substantial prejudice by believers toward other churches. Thus, only 7% of Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate to be "schismatic," and 19% consider the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate to be "the church of the aggressor state" (the only region where this position predominates is Galicia, where 42% maintain this idea)."
In addition, according to the data of this study, the volunteer movement has outpaced the church in terms of the trust of the population of Ukraine. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 April 2015)
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