Believers of Ptichya village: We will stand to the end!

Vicar of Rovno Eparchy of the UOC, Bishop Pimen (Voyat) of Dubno with Ptichya community

Members of the community of the Holy Assumption church of the UOC of Ptichya village, Rovno region, declare that they are not passing anywhere and re-affirmed their loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy.

“We still have a community, we will go to pray in a temporary temple and what will be next – we rely on God’s will,” shared Nikolai Kovalchuk, the member of the UOC community.

“The OCU community once again cut off the locks, motivating it by the fact that our community had passed to them,” said parishioner of the Assumption Church in the village of Ptichya Irina Gorchuk. “But there is our community, we have not changed our jurisdiction. Our whole community remains faithful to the last man to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy and we are not passing anywhere. We will stand to the end.”

On April 4, in the village of Ptichya, supporters of the OCU / UOC KP broke down the doors of the Assumption temple of the UOC and seized the church. On the eve of April 1, they held a meeting on behalf of the UOC community about the so-called transition to the OCU, about which none of the UOC believers knew. On the same day, they received a document from the authorities stating that the UOC community "had been transferred" to the OCU and was registered as the only community in the village.

The authorities told the UOC believers that their community was supposedly no longer there. But in reality they are, they continue to pray in the garage in the territory of their temple. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights opened proceedings on the application of the community of the UOC village of Ptichya about the violation of their rights due to the repeated seizures of the church with the assistance of the authorities.

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