UGCC calls on OCU to leave West to them and focus on Eastern Ukraine

Dumenko in Lviv. Photo: OCU

UGCC representative Yurii Boyko called for a division of territorial influence with the OCU in western Ukraine. He wrote about this on his Facebook.

Boyko holds the position of assistant to the bishop for monastic affairs at the UGCC’s Lviv Archdiocese. In his post, he said that recent events in Lviv had prompted him to ask an "honest question" about the direction the Church should take. According to him, too much attention is being paid to Western Ukraine, "where church and national life already have deep-rooted Ukrainian foundations." Instead, Boyko argued, the OCU’s mission should be to serve in the eastern and southern parts of the country. He believes that a church becomes “great not when it occupies territory that has already been developed, but when it goes where its ministry is most needed.”

The statement provoked a sharp reaction from representatives of Epifaniy Dumenko's structure. "Archbishop" Volodymyr (Shlapak), head of the OCU’s Zhytomyr-Polissia Eparchy, wrote in the comments that Boyko, "on behalf of the UGCC, is talking about losing its electorate" because of the OCU head’s visit to Western Ukraine.

He also told UGCC representatives: "Do not appropriate the history of our Ukrainian Church, from which we emerged, and do not tell us which territories are canonical." Other Uniates accused OCU members of seeking to "take everything ready-made rather than build something themselves," while one user reminded them that "Ukraine is the ancient territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople; there is no place here for adherents of Rome!"

As the UOJ reported, experts warned that Western Ukraine could turn into the Balkans in religious terms.

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