Archbishop Varsonofy: Vinnitsa authorities back OCU

Archbishop Varsonofy (Stoliar) of Vinnitsa and Bar. Photo: UOJ

On July 6, 2019, Archbishop Varsonofy (Stoliar) of Vinnitsa and Bar said during the press conference on the occasion of the 96th anniversary of the Kalinovka miracle that the Vinnitsa authorities strongly back the OCU and put pressure on the UOC. This is reported by the UOJ correspondent.

According to him, despite the fact that representatives of local authorities were invited to the procession, they did not come.

“Unfortunately, we know that the authorities are on the side of the newly established church structure – OCU. And their absence today confirms their mood.”

The hierarch stressed that from December 2018 to this day he has been denied registration as a chancellor of the eparchy by the state registration bodies for contrived reasons, upon that notaries and registrars are threatened with dismissal if they do it.

He said that the court, at the request of the former chancellor of Vinnitsa Eparchy of the UOC, Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky), forbade him to register and conduct any activity related to the eparchy and the cathedral.

"They fraudulently took away all our property, our cathedral, all the documents, our finances, and when we won the court, another law came into force – on the renaming," His Eminence explained.

As the UOJ reported, in the middle of June 2019, the clergy and parishioners of Vinnitsa eparchy of the UOC during the prayer standing near Vinnitsa regional state administration handed over an official message to Valery Koroviy, the text of which was later published on the diocesan website. In their address, the clergy and laity of the canonical Church recalled the resumed aggressive actions of the OCU activists and addressed the state agents with 5 requests.

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