Mass media: OCU communities actually get to UOC KP after their transition

The seized Holy Ascension temple in the village Olenovka, Borzna district

Proceeding from evident conflict situations with transitions of temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU in Chernigov region, the journalists decided to figure out where the religious communities get to after such “transitions,” informs the information resource ianews.in.ua.

For example, they take a look at two UOC communities in the villages of Olenevka and Kruty.

Recall that in the village of Olenevka, Borzna district, supporters of the OCU and nationalists from S14, despite the resistance of the parishioners, on January 16, 2019, seized the temple of the UOC. On that day, at about 12:00 pm Sergey Chechin, the “chaplain priest” from Nezhin, arrived at the church and with the support of the radicals went to the temple where he performed a prayer service.

As journalists saw in the register of the YouControl database, Sergey Chechin is a rector of the All Saints UOC KP parish.

Chechin, in his turn, is subordinated not to the non-existing OCU unit, but to the Chernigov eparchy administration of the UOC Kiev Patriarchate, whose head, Eustraty Zoria, declared about the dissolution of the Kiev Patriarchate as far as December 15, 2018 .

Concerning the situation in the legendary Kruty, recall that on February 26, 2019, at a meeting of the village, several activists raised the issue of the transition of the UOC religious community to the OCU. The chairman of the village council, Viktor Makedon, guided by the current legislation of Ukraine, did not raise the issue for consideration and closed the meeting of the territorial community.

One of the initiators of the transfer to the OCU was a certain “priest” Sergey Chutchenko who, at the request of journalists to provide a cleric's certificate, replied that he did not have this with him. Sergey Chutchenko  also turned out to be a representative of the UOC KP.

“Aren’t these frauds and manipulations from representatives of the UOC KP? Why is unrecognized “patriarch” Filaret (Denisenko) still holding divine services? Why is the structure called "Kiev Patriarchate" not canceled as announced before, why? Why? Why? Why? There are a lot of these “why”, but for some reason there are no answers to them,” conclude the journalists of the resource.

As reported by the UOJ, Epiphany Dumenko the head of the OCU, stated that there is no longer any Kiev Patriarchate or Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. At the same time, Epiphany clarified that now the statutes of the UOC KP and the UAOC have already been deregistered, whiles the Kiev Metropolis of the Orthodox Church, which he calls the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the statute, adopted on December 15 at the “unification council”, are registered.

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