Arseniy Yatsenyuk instructed Ministers to cooperate more closely with the Church in the social sector
Head of Government Yatsenyuk instructed central and local executive authorities to take measures to deal with problem issues voiced at a meeting with members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.
This was stated in the Decree No. 102 of the Prime Minister of Ukraine as of October 13, 2014, according to the Institute for Religious Freedom.
The Ministry of Social Policy is tasked “take immediate action to accelerate clearance of humanitarian aid received by religious organizations for further distribution in the areas of ATO and among displaced persons” by the end of October.
The State Emergency Service under the Ministry of Social Policy was instructed to “establish effective cooperation with religious organizations on issues related to social support of displaced persons”.
With regard to complaints of stirring confrontation on religious grounds, Yatsenyuk asked the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture, and the Kyiv regional state administration “to take immediate measures to prevent aggravation of inter-faith relations, including the seizure of religious buildings”.
In addition, the Ministry of Culture is to monitor cases of interfaith conflict and develop an action plan to prevent them. Another objective of the Ministry is to restore the work of the Commission for the exercise of rights of the rights of religious organizations under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which has to renewed its professional staff.
The Prime Minister instructed the State Committee, Kyiv and regional administrations to resolve the issue of “providing free air time for religious organizations on the First National TV channel, the first channel of the Ukrainian radio and regional public broadcasters to broadcast programs on spiritual and moral issues and for the coverage of activities of religious organizations.”
However, the MFA was assigned the task of promoting members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations in the activities abroad and to consider establishing a specialized public council at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for cooperation with religious organizations.
The Prime Minister also instructed the Ministry of Education and Science to involve the Council of Churches to the work on implementing the objectives of the educational reform, particularly on a mechanism for state recognition of higher theological education, accreditation of higher religious education and award them degrees in the field of ‘theology’.
As reported, on October 3, 2014, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov and Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. In their speeches, the leaders of denominations thanked the Government for the already solved problems in church-state relations and expressed their suggestions for further work.
