Dimitry Rudyuk said that the OCU is facing a crisis of both “monastic” and “priestly” vocation.
On February 26, 2021, “Metropolitan” Dimitry Rudyuk of Lviv and Sokal of OCU spoke about how many “monks” and “monasteries” are under the jurisdiction of his diocese.
In an interview with Saken Aimurzaev, the host of the Detector. Interviewer program, Rudyuk said that “one monastery is registered in his Lviv diocese having one, let’s say so, monk. There is one monastery with a nun, so it is ostensibly a nunnery. And we used to have a nunnery in Chervonograd with three nuns but they were in their old age and almost all reposed.”
“There is no vocation (to monastic life – Ed.) as such, and not a single monastery has passed to us from the UOC,” the “hierarch” said.
The representative of Dumenko-led structure also lamented that in relation to the “priesthood” of the OCU, “there are fewer and fewer vocations.” In his words, “this is a very alarming trend.”
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that in the report of Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), there emerged another 36 parishes compared with the last year (12,338) in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for 2020 year.
The total number of clergymen also increased to 12,456, which is 45 more than in 2019.
In addition, after the establishment of a new St. Sergius of Radonezh nunnery in the Bila Tserkva diocese by the decision of the Synod, there are 255 monasteries in the UOC, which count 4,548 monastics.
The number of full-time students in higher religious educational institutions also increased by 159 people (1531 and 1372, respectively, in 2020 and 2019), and another theological educational institution was opened.
