Locks cut off UOC church in Telchi village, police present

The Church of the Three Hierarchs of the UOC in the village of Telchi, Volyn region

On February 1, 2019, a UOC church was seized in the village of Telchi in Manevychi district of the Volyn region.

As the UOJ correspondent learned, a group of people arrived at the church that morning with tools for forced entry and broke open the locks.

On January 27, a meeting of the territorial community was held in the village under the chairmanship of village council head Fedir Svytach. During the vote on the community’s supposed “transfer” to the jurisdiction of the OCU, 230 people allegedly voted in favor.

The rector of the Church of the Three Hierarchs, Fr. Vitaliy Ivankiv, told the UOJ correspondent that people who had long ceased to live in the village took part in the vote. According to the priest, there are witnesses who can confirm that those people were improperly added to the voting lists.

Fr. Vitaliy also said that during the vote, parents signed on behalf of their underage children.

The UOC cleric realized that a raider seizure of the church was being prepared. He went around the village and collected signatures from parishioners in support of remaining under the jurisdiction of the UOC. According to him, 85 people supported that position.

“On the morning of February 1, one of the village residents called me and said that some people were heading toward the church. I went there, and by that time a group of 47 people had already gathered – not the 230 that had been claimed. Of those present, only OCU activists were there. They staged a vote on the spot in order to draw up a document stating that it had been decided to break open the locks,” Fr. Vitaliy said.

The priest said that police officers present at the scene recorded everything from beginning to end. However, law enforcement took no steps to prevent the violation. Moreover, when Fr. Vitaliy appealed to a representative of the district police leadership, who is a close relative of the village head, he was told to seek justice in court.

“I insisted that I would not hand over the keys, because all of these actions, beginning with the so-called ‘community meetings,’ were unlawful – they contradicted our statute. In response, I heard nothing from the activists except insults and assurances that the ‘recognition by Constantinople’ was enough for them to seize our church,” the rector said.

This Sunday, the UOC community of the village of Telchi will be forced to cancel services because the faithful now have to find a temporary place to celebrate the Liturgy.

During January of that year, supporters of the OCU seized churches of the canonical Church in the villages of Krasnovolia and Nichohivka. These localities are governed by the same village council that also administers Telchi. The community in the village of Mateiky, the fourth settlement in this district, is trying to defend its church from seizure.

The UOJ editorial board reminds readers that in cases of violations of the rights of the episcopate, clergy, laity, or institutions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – including obstruction of services, church seizures, provocations, pressure, threats, and similar actions – they should immediately contact the Legal Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by phone at: 097-537-55-96.

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