A new poll conducted by the Sotsis Center, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov center reports that a majority of those Ukrainians who say they are Orthodox identify with the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine rather than with the one controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to the survey, 70.7 percent of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, with 43.9 percent saying they view themselves as part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and only 15.2 percent indicating loyalty to the Moscow Patriarchate Church (socis.kiev.ua/ua/2019-01/?fbclid=Iw AR1cc7_Kkhc0oIuWunNctxlcE3LA5IQXHizzhh9PHWlosHyhav-vjWO8c1Q).
The poll also found that 38.4 percent consider themselves Orthodox, but do not affiliate themselves with either. Other findings of interest include that 6.9 percent of Ukrainians say they are Greek-Catholics, 1.3 percent Roman Catholics, and 1 percent Protestants and Evangelicals. Just under 10 percent said they were not affiliated with any Church.
That pattern suggests that ever more parishes will transfer to the OCU despite Russian efforts with flying squads moving from place to place to block such moves. As of yesterday, “close to 200” parishes in Ukraine had shifted to the new national Church (unn.com.ua/ru/news/1777424-blizko-200-religiynikh-gromad-khochut-ofitsiyno-priyednatisya-do-ptsu).
The tectonic shift this represents was highlighted by Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn. He said that Moscow wants to maintain control of the Ukrainian Church because only in that way can the Kremlin have any hope of regaining control of all of Ukraine (risu.org.ua/ru/index/all_news/community/religion_and_society/74554/).
As long as Moscow controls the Ukrainian Church, the archbishop declared, it could position itself as “the third Rome,” but without Ukraine it shows itself to be something else – “Moscow as the second Golden Horde.”