Nearly a thousand communities left the UOC-MP to join the OCU in 2022-2023, - official data

These figures were disclosed by the State Service in response to an information request from Professor Andriy Smyrnov of Ostroh Academy.

The letter notes that the State Service "does not collect and is not obliged, according to its competence defined by legislation, to collect information about religious communities that have only decided to change their subordination in canonical and organizational matters." Instead, in collaboration with relevant structural units in the regions and in Kyiv, the State Service "collects information on the registered statutes (regulations) of religious communities in new editions due to their change in canonical subordination to the religious centers (management) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)."

Thus, according to the data from the structural units of regional and Kyiv city military state administrations for ethnic policy and freedom of conscience, 472 statutes (regulations) of UOC-MP religious communities were registered in new editions in 2023 due to their change in canonical subordination to the religious centers (management) of the OCU.

As for 2022, Professor Smyrnov had received data from the State Service previously.