Number of religious organizations in Ukraine increased during 2004

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

KYIV - During 2004 the number of religious organizations in Ukraine grew by 950 to a total of 30,805, said Viktor Bondarenko, head of Ukraine's National Committee on Religious Matters. According to Mr. Bondarenko, the absolute majority of the organizations, 29,590, are communities of the faithful, lower-level links of religious organizations.

According to Mr. Bondarenko, 52.6 percent of all registered religious communities active in Ukraine belong to one of three Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (10,500), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (about 3,500), and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (1,200). The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has almost 3,400 communities (11.5 percent) and the All-Ukraine Union of the Association of Evangelical Baptists has almost 2,400 (9.3 percent).

These numbers indicate only the number of communities registered with the government and do not indicate the number of faithful. For example, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parishes, especially in far western Ukraine, often have thousands of members, whereas some Protestant communities often have less than a hundred.

According to Mr. Bondarenko, it is indicative of how well the religious organizations are supplied, both materially and technically, that 72.3 percent of religious communities have their own religious buildings.

In addition to the communities, there are 378 monasteries (with over 6,200 monks and nuns), 298 missions and 173 religious educational establishments (with 9,500 full-time students and approximately 10,300 extension students).

The religious organizations are served by 27,900 religious ministers, whose numbers in 2004 increased by 1,260 people.

Mr. Bondarenko noted that there are no acute religious conflicts in Ukraine. He said the National Committee for Religious Matters in 2004 registered about 30 violations of law, both from the side of religious organizations and from the side of the government. Most of them have to do with using buildings formerly owned by religious groups not according to their purpose, mostly in the Volhyn, Kherson and Rivne regions, he explained.

Over 5,600 faithful from abroad visited Ukraine last year.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 27, 2005, No. 9, Vol. LXXIII

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