The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), responding to a request from the Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra, has granted an additional 60 days to comply with an order requiring it to remedy violations of legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations.
DESS Head Viktor Yelensky told an Ukrinform correspondent.
“Lawyers representing the religious organization Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra appealed to the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience with a request to extend the deadline for complying with the order to remedy violations of legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations. This possibility is provided for by the Law on Protecting the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations, which stipulates that, upon a justified request, the deadline for compliance with an order may be extended by 60 days,” Yelensky said.
According to him, the order issued by DESS to the Pochaiv Lavra following a study into signs of affiliation contains two main requirements.
“The first is to withdraw from the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which under Ukrainian law has been recognized as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The second requirement is for Metropolitan Volodymyr Moroz, abbot of the Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra, to withdraw from the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
