The Ukrainian Orthodox Church stated that the decision of the Constitutional Court on the obligation to indicate religious organizations belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church in their name does not apply to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and there are no grounds for renaming it. This was announced by the head of the legal department of the Church, archpriest Oleksandr Bakhov, the department's press service reports.
"...It should be noted that the decision of the Constitutional Court does not oblige the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name, it only concerns compliance with the law on renaming the Constitution of Ukraine," he noted.
The leader also drew attention to the fact that there is no "any mention" of the UOC in the law itself.
"Statutory documents show that the UOC is registered in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, its founder is the Cathedral of the UOC, its religious center, as well as all administrative bodies, are located in Kyiv," Bakhov said.
According to him, all attempts to forcibly apply this law to the UOC will increase the number of violations of the right to freedom of conscience and religion in Ukraine.
"Thus, despite the decision of the Constitutional Court, it should be noted that today there are no legal grounds for changing the name of religious organizations belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Bakhov noted.
