On 14 December 2023, during the bombardment of the village of Myroliubivka of the Chornobaivka Deanery of the Kherson Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the local church of the Prophet Elijah was severely damaged, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reports with reference to the press service of the Kherson Diocese. Mostly, the roof was damaged and windows were broken. It is the third church damaged in consequence of bombardment of the Kherson region by Russian troops ...

The Ministry of Justice will distribute its clarifications among the territorial justice administrations regarding the peculiarities of state registration of religious organizations. This was agreed by the participants of the Working Group, the regular meeting of which was held at the Ministry on October 6 with the participation of representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom. The explanation, which will be pr...

On June 4, a conflict erupted between the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate around the building of a church in Kolomyia. According to IRres, which is citing a local television station STC, it is a wooden Church of Annunciation of the 17th century. The activists of the UGCC came to the church building and organized a meeting in which it claimed the rights to it. Allegedly, only Greek Catholics ruled there, but in the Soviet...

On 3 January 2023, on the commemoration day of St. Peter, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus’, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine celebrated a Divine Liturgy and performed the consecration of a bishop in the church of Venerable Agapitos of the Kyiv Caves in the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Bishops of the UOC concelebrated with the Primate. Archimandrite Benjamin (Voloshchuk), a clergyman of the Chernivtsi and Bukovyna Diocese, became a new bishop of the Ukrainian ...

Director Alexei Uchitel’s recently-released film “Mathilde” about the relationship between St. Petersburg ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya and then-Tsarevich Nicholas II has been banned in Ukraine, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The ban was reported by a member of the Expert Council of the State Committee for Cinematography Dimitry Kapranov. “We have not allowed the showing of Mathilde according to formal criteria,” noted Kapranov. He explained that a musician on the so-c...

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations issued a statement condemning the desecration of the monument to the Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem in Kyiv, according to the Institute of Religious Freedom. "This is undoubtedly an act of vandalism and an attempt on interethnic and interreligious peace in Ukraine. ...But we know that anti-Semitism and vandalism do not enjoy the support of the broad masses of Ukrainian society." The statement was published on November 25 on the...

The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) urges the President of Ukraine and MPs to amend the draft law No. 0931, so that the fanatical fight against discrimination does not lead to the suppression of citizens' constitutional rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of expression. The appeals to justify the position of the religious community were sent to the President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leadership of the Parliament of Ukraine signed by the UCC...

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations delegated its representatives to the sessions of the Parliamentary Committee, which considered the draft of the law "On prevention and counteraction of domestic violence”. During the meeting, representatives of the Council of Churches supported the draft of the Bill No. 5294, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom. As a result of the discussion, the Committee on Family, Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism recommended the parli...

The Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is drafting a memorandum on the interaction with the Conference of European Churches. The representatives of Ukrainian denominations discussed this issue during a meeting on October 18, under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ahmed Tamim, Chairman of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, the Institute of Religious Freedom report. Earlier the AUCCRO already appealed to foreign inter-church associations ...

In a recent ruling, the Rozdilniansky District Court of Odesa Oblast recognized a violation of Jehovah's Witnesses' rights to free expression of religious beliefs by denying them the opportunity to perform alternative (non-military) service. This is reported by Slovo pro Slovo with reference to sud.ua. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has previously noted that the state is obliged to provide the constitutional right to alternative service that would be completely separated from milit...

January 22, the Sixth Court of Appeal ordered the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Volyn Oblast to return Ukrainian citizenship to His Grace Bishop Gideon (Kharon) of Makarov, the abbot of the Tithes Monastery in Kiev, repots Ukrainska Pravda. The court also recognized that the Migration Service had no right to cancel the decision to grant His Grace citizenship by territorial origin in accordance with part 1, article 8 of the Law of Ukraine, “On Ukrainian Citizenship.” Bp. Gideon wa...

The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church won another legal victory on 22 July, as the Sixth Kiev Administrative Court of Appeals dismissed the Ministry of Culture’s appeal in the case of the forced renaming of the Church. Thus, the District Administrative Court’s earlier decision stopping the process of forced renaming remains in force, reports the YouTube channel First Cossack. However, the Ministry of Culture continues to look for workarounds and to do everything possible to forcibly rename ...

On February 5, His Grace Bishop Gideon of Makarov briefed a group of U.S. Congressmen on the facts of the discrimination that the canonical Ukrainian Church faced at the hands of the Ukrainian state under President Petro Poroshenko. He also spoke about how representatives of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” flagrantly violate international law and the Ukrainian constitution and about the violent activities of Ukraine’s various radical organizations. Returning home to Ukraine on Fe...

It is important that the Holy Father arrives in our country before his September trip to Kazakhstan, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Vatican Andriy Yurash believes. After the Saturday (6 August) meeting with Pope Francis, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash expressed hope for the arrival of the pontiff in August. This is reported by the press service of RCC in Ukraine. In an interview with Italian television RAI, Yurash said: "It is very important...

In der laufenden Sitzungsperiode des ukrainischen Parlaments diskutiert die Werchowna Rada ein Dutzend teils umstrittener Gesetzesvorlagen, die religiöse Angelegenheiten betreffen. Bereits im Mai hätten einige der betreffenden Vorlagen diskutiert werden sollen, aber aufgrund internationaler Proteste wurde die Debatte aufgeschoben. Kritiker befürchteten im Fall einer Annahme der Gesetzesvorhaben eine Einschränkung der Religionsfreiheit in der Ukraine.

Der Rat der Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa (GEKE) hat die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in der Ukraine als direktes Mitglied in die Kirchengemeinschaft aufgenommen. Bereits seit 2019 hatten die evangelisch-lutherischen Kirchen in Russland und anderen Nachfolgestaaten der Sowjetunion über ihre Mitgliedschaft in der GEKE diskutiert. Bislang waren sie als Bund der Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirchen in Russland und anderen Staaten (ELKRAS) gemeinsam vertreten, strebten nun ab...

Activists have compiled information about 16 religious sites in Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Data on 8 of these sites is now available on the "Temples Under Fire" platform, as reported by the initiators of the "UP. Life" initiative. The website features photos and videos of the destruction and damage to religious buildings of various denominations, which were documented during expeditions. The project's authors aim to document Russia's destruction of Ukrainian religious sites, draw attention ...

The National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" intends to digitize up to 12,000 cultural objects and 2,500 documents from the reserve's collections with the help of equipment provided by the American company "Digital Transitions." This was announced during a briefing attended by representatives of "Digital Transitions" and the administration of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra," as reported by Ukrinform. "The threats to cultural heritage have increased with the war. Therefore, there is a...

Zum Thema „Die Rolle der Religion in der europäischen Integration – in der Perspektive der Ukraine und der Europäischen Union“ fand in Kiew am 18. und 19. September eine Konferenz statt. Die Teilnehmer – Vertreter des Europäischen Parlaments und des Allukrainischen Rats der Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften – diskutierten über den Kern europäischer Werte und fundamentaler Prinzipien. Besprochen wurden zudem die Rolle der Religion im öffentlichen Leben, der spirituelle und soziale Dienst der...

The Office of the President of Ukraine informed about such significant financial assistance to Ukraine at the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. "During the meeting with His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the First Lady together with Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Andriy Sybiha and Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Türk...