Volyn RSA: Officially, only one UOC community transferred to OCU

Head of the Department of Culture for Religions and Nationalities of the Volyn Regional State Administration Olga Chubara

According to official statistics, today in Volyn from 671 communities of the UOC, only one community of Zhidychin has officially transferred to the OCU, registering with the Department of Culture for Religions and Nationalities of the Volyn Regional State Administration, reports "Channel 12".

But even this case can hardly be called a transfer since it is connected with a number of scandalous details when Zhidychin believers were beaten, thrown out of the church and blocked access to their own temple. OCU “parishioners” were brought to the church by buses from Lutsk. The activists were on watch for two days on the church territory, burned fire in barrels and called this action “our Maidan”. Hundreds of believers of the St. Nicholas Church community of the UOC, who were expelled from their own church, are now forced to pray in the rector's house.

“To date, meetings have been held in the UOC communities. There are no official transfers among the communities of the Kiev Patriarchate,” said Olga Chubara, head of the Department of Culture for Religions and Nationalities of the Volyn RSA.

At the same time, the legislation of Ukraine (Article 18 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations") prohibits any actions that could result in the alienation of property of a religious organization and management of other persons until the procedure of subordination in canonical and organizational matters is completed.

That is the Law establishes criminal liability for cutting locks from the doors of churches that have not been officially reassigned to another jurisdiction (which often happens during pseudo-transfers of UOC communities to the OCU).

In addition, the Law of Ukraine “On State Registration of Legal Entities, Individuals – Entrepreneurs and Public Formations” states that the statutes of religious communities must be brought in line with the established norms during the year, that is, until January 17, 2020.

“Now there are 1,667 religious organizations operating in Volyn, of which 671 are UOC communities, 415 – UOC KP, and 17 – UAOC,” the TV spot says.

As reported by the UOJ, there is no official registry of the transfers of communities to the OCU. And even senior officials, voicing certain figures of "transfers", cannot refer to official data.

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