In Odesa region, only 5 communities have joined the OCU, the rest are Russian churches

On May 20, 2025, the period specified by Law No. 3894-IX expired, during which religious communities could voluntarily withdraw from the subordination of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. However, in Odesa region, only five communities have joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine since 2019.

According to Viktor Yelenskyy, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, in general, after receiving the Tomos in 2019, more than 1,900 communities across the country joined the OCU. However, this number is only a small part of the entire network of religious organizations that remain part of the UOC (MP).

According to the official, there are currently more than 10,000 UOC (MP) communities in Ukraine, of which about 8,000 are in the territory controlled by Ukraine. This is approximately equal to the number of OCU communities.

Most transitions took place in Volyn, Kyiv, and Khmelnytsky regions. Instead, less active dynamics were recorded in Dnipropetrovska oblast, as well as in Odesa, Donetsk, and Kherson oblasts, which is partly due to the hostilities in the vicinity.

As of May 2025, only five religious communities in Odesa region had joined the OCU. The first to announce their transition in January 2019 were the communities of the villages of Puzhaykove, Balta district, and Sarata. In Puzhaykove, the community of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica joined the OCU, which became the first in the region. At the end of October 2024, the community of the village of Kontseba, Podil district, joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine together with its rector, Father Vyacheslav. In March 2025, Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnytsia and Bar received the rector of the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica from the village of Dakhtalia into the OCU. Another community - in the village of Stari Broskivtsi - has also made the transition to the OCU in recent years.

During a live broadcast of Intent.Insight, Archpriest Theodore Orobets of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine explained that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is ready to accept all parishes that are part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), but with certain conditions.

Ірина Глухова