UOC temple being stormed In Baranovka

Metropolitan Nikodim and his flock defending the temple from the raiders

On March 10, 2019 hundreds of activists attacked the Church of the UOC of the Most Holy Theotokos.

At 2.00 pm in the central square of Baranovka, the so-called meeting (veche), convened by the deputy of the Baranovka city council Oleg Kovalsky – a representative of the Oleg Liashko Radical Party, took place.

On March 7, he called on patriots to deal with the church of the UOC and decide which church should be in Baranovka – Russian or Ukrainian. As a result, on March 10 after the “meeting” at 14.00, about 400 activists moved to the UOC temple and tried to break inside. At this time, parishioners, who remained in the church after the Liturgy, were praying. The rector blessed the women to remain inside, and the men went out into the churchyard and tried to reason with activists. However, they did not listen to.

The radically-minded activists twisted the believers’ hands, pulled them off the steps of the temple, and tore off the priests’ crosses. When the radicals managed to clear a place near the entrance, they cut off the hinges of the church door with a grinder. The police were playing the role of an observer.

After removing the doors, the activists began to pull the believers out of the church one by one. However, as of 22.00, there were about 100 parishioners in the temple, defending their shrine.

Some of the raiders dispersed, but there are about 200 of them remaining in the churchyard.

The ruling bishop of the Zhitomir Eparchy, Metropolitan Nikodim, arrived at the church. He managed to go through the cordons of the radicals and get into the temple. At the moment, the bishop is with his flock. Also, the priests of the eparchy have come.

The believers managed to push aside the raiders and welded the temple doors cut off by vandals.

We recall that on February 20, the authorities headed by the radical deputy Oleg Kovalsky organized a meeting of the territorial community, at which they decided to transfer the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos to the OCU. According to Metropolitan Nikodim, this meeting was conducted by a Greek Catholic. As the rector of the community, Archpriest Roman Klim, asserts, there was not a single parishioner of the church among those who had gathered in the Culture House – outsiders voted for the transfer of the church community to the OCU.

At the same time, the religious community held its own meeting, where more than 600 people voted for loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

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