WARSAW, Poland (RNS) — Ukrainian authorities moved Wednesday (July 2) to strip Metropolitan Onufriy, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of his Ukrainian citizenship, citing alleged ties between Onufriy himself, as well as the church he leads, with Moscow.
Since 2018, Ukraine, whose population is primarily Eastern Orthodox, has two competing Orthodox church bodies, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed in the wake of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support of separatist militias in the Donbas region.
The break with Moscow came in response to a call from Ukrainian clergy for a religious body divorced from Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who justified Russia’s aggression in spiritual terms. In 2019, the OCU was recognized as fully independent of Moscow under the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Bartholomew I.
Since then, a large number of Ukrainian churches have moved to the OCU, while the historic church, along with other arms of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, were accused of spreading Russian pro-war propaganda and of serving Russia’s intelligence services.
The Ukrainian Parliament has brought forth a series of bills to ban or otherwise outlaw religious movements with ties to Russia, which most have considered designed to target the UOC.
Metropolitan Onufriy, lef …