Ukraine’s Poroshenko signs law ‘aimed at renaming’ canonical Orthodox Church

A law which effectively forces the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to change its name signed on Saturday by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The legislation obliges religious organizations, which are said to be led from “aggressor states,” to explicitly show this link in their names within four months of the law coming into effect. The move follows the creation of the so-called ‘Orthodox Church in Ukraine’ – an organization, formed predominantly by various schismatic hierarchs from now-defunct unrecognized Ukrainian churches. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has already refused to change its name, accusing the authorities of tampering with religious affairs.