In Volyn UOC communities defend their churches from OCU activists

St. Nicholas community of vlg. Skobelka refused to transfer to the OCU

On January 20, a number of attempts to seize churches by OCU activists occurred in the Volyn region, reports the spokesperson for the Volyn eparchy of the UOC Protopriest Oleg Tochinsky on his Facebook page.

In the village of Skobelka of the Gorokhov district, one and a half hundred people, who called themselves members of the village community, came to the temple courtyard of the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC at the end of the Sunday Divine Liturgy, although practically none of them was in the church during the Divine service.

OCU supporters demanded a meeting be held in order to “transfer” the temple to the OCU.

After heated disputes, activists of the OCU were proposed to form a group of 7 people for negotiations. The Dean of the UOC KP in the Gorokhov district Andrei Sidor refused to participate in the negotiations, calling them a provocation, and pretended that he had nothing to do with the conflict, although he remained in the courtyard of the church.

During the talks, which took place in the bell tower next to the temple, OCU adherents were invited to use the provision of Law No. 4128, which stipulates the admissibility of holding alternate services in the event of a conflict in a parish. They refused to resolve the issue peacefully and re-voted on the provisions of Law No. 4128 adopted by the Rada.

After lengthy negotiations, OCU supporters withdrew from the church, and members of the UOC community once again unanimously voted for belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

A similar situation occurred in the town of Berestechko, Gorokhovsky district, where the UOC also held a meeting under the Holy Trinity Cathedral. A few days ago, OCU supporters in Berestechko already held a “meeting” in the town club, in which a local representative of the UOC KP took part. Despite his attempts to convince the town residents to make the "right" choice, the UOC religious community refused to change the denomination.

OCU activists also held a meeting at St. George’s Church in the village of Kutrov of the Gorokhov district. Although the media report on the “transfer” of the parish, the rector of the UOC community is still eligible in the church. The situation, in fact, remains in abeyance.

In the village of Nichegovka of the Manevichi district, OCU followers refused to comply with the provisions of Law No. 4128.

In the village of Bronitsa of the Kamen-Kashirsky district, despite the fact that the UOC community confirmed their allegiance to the canonical Church, after the Sunday service, OCU representatives illegally seized the Church of St. John the Baptist by breaking the door locks and replacing them with their own.

As the UOJ reported, Orthodox believers of the Chernigov region turned to the head of the Borzna District State Administration Vera Proskura with a request to return them the UOC church in the village of Olenovka, grabbed by OCU supporters with the participation of activists from the radical group S14.

Earlier, the UOC community in the village of Bronitsa in Volyn refused to transfer to the OCU.

Also, in the Borzna district, believers drove away the officials who were campaigning for the OCU.

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