Deputy: I was not let into the city council hall since I'm a UOC believer

Igor Stroyev, city council deputy of Baranovka, Zhitomir region

When the commotion around the creation of the OCU began, the residents of Baranovka, which belong to different confessions – Catholics, Protestants – were radicalized against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told the First Cossack channel deputy of the Baranovka city council of Zhitomir region Igor Stroyev.

According to the deputy, at the meeting of the city council, where the issue of the “transition” to the OCU was considered, there were 15 out of 26 deputies. He and another deputy were not allowed into the hall because they knew that they were members of the UOC.

“I know for sure – the city council is not authorized to resolve such issues. Even the state has no right to interfere in the affairs of the Church, let alone the city council. As a result, we have a conflict,” said Igor Stroyev.

The deputy called for humility before the Church, to become kinder and forgiving before Easter. After all, everything that has a politically-tinged is fleeting, but people still have to live together and jointly develop the city.

As the UOJ reported, on March 12, 2019, the deputies of Baranovka city council voted in support of the “transition” of the local church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos to the OCU. After that, the representative of the Radical Party of Oleg Liashko, deputy of Baranovka city council Oleg Kovalsky, spoke to members of the territorial community and said that the parishioners of the canonical Church defending their own church were drug addicts. According to him, such characteristics of the UOC believers from Baranovka were allegedly given by the medical workers present at the raider seizure.

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