Patriarch Lubomyr about the state initiative for uniting the churches: A neighboring country’s successful model will not be effective in our reality

"Any model which functions well in a country with a similar mentality will not be effective (but rather may lead to social destabilization in the religious area) if it is transferred to the Ukrainian centuries-old reality," Patriarch Lubomyr, the head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said during the roundtable "The Dialogue Between the Government and the Denominations in the Context of the European System of Values," which was held in Kyiv with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the participation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. The head of the UGCC said the relationship between the church and the state should find a golden mean, where the state and the church are structurally separated from each other but as partners serve the same people, respecting the laws and rights of each other and respecting the other’s rights. "Let us remember that freedom is not lawlessness and the freedom of one ends where the other’s beings," said the head of the UGCC. "The basic law of the Ukrainian state stipulates the existence of many religious organizations and communities, each guaranteed the same rights," said patriarch, noting that this is a very important expression of respect for every believer. In the opinion of the head of the UGCC, a jointly designed bilateral concept of relations is a major step forward. "For this document to have normative rules, it must be approved by the Parliament, which, unfortunately, was not. We believe that without an approved concept, laws will not be adopted that would reasonably and practically regulate relations," said the patriarch.   "Today to the Supreme Council was given two draft laws. One of them is a modernized law "On the Freedom of Conscience” and the second concerns the restitution of church property. If the basis of these two draft laws and all other laws concerning the relation between church and state does not follow the bilateral concept, the adoption of these laws can become a plaything of political forces," the head of UGCC said. According to the primate of the church, the greatest sin against peace and harmony between different faiths is the neglect of equality, which the constitution of Ukraine guarantees. "I use the word ‘sin’ because the government granting special privileges to any single church or religious organization or encroaching on the rights of any church or religious organization leads to spiritual strife, alienation, and finally, perhaps, hatred between different denominations. This, in other words, is a direct path to destruction of the church or religious organization. Acquiring a privileged position through the assistance and support of the government, religious structures lose their spiritual freedom against the state, stand at its service, which threatens the life of the church for it contradicts its essence," said Patriarch Lubomyr at the round table.

Information Department of the UGCC