Buscha parish builds new church to replace the one seized by OCU activists

Festal service in the UOC community’s church, village of Buscha. Photo: Archpriest Vasyl Nachev

On November 21, the UOC religious community of Buscha in the Zdolbuniv district of Rivne Region marked its patronal feast in honor of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael. Their previous church was seized by supporters of the OCU in March 2019 with the involvement of the head of the local district administration.

The newly built church was erected in just a month. It will be consecrated later, once the interior work is completed.

This year’s celebration was especially solemn, for after nine months of hardship the faithful finally have a place where they can pray in peace.

“We went through a great deal; during this time there were humiliations and obstacles to performing the divine services,” Fr. Oleksandr Stetsiuk, rector of the church in Buscha, told the UOJ. “To keep my family safe, I even had to send my wife and child to another region to stay with her parents. The situation in the village is still difficult, but it is no longer as frightening – we now have a church.”

The faithful of the UOC began construction of the new church on October 17, 2019. The project was designed by one of the clergy of the Rivne Eparchy. The land for the church was donated by a local resident, Mariya Kondratiuk.

“Our community gathered the initial funds ourselves,” Fr. Oleksandr Stetsiuk said. “However, the lion’s share of the financing came from the Kyiv Metropolia, and Member of Parliament Vadym Novynskyi also made contributions.”

Many clergy and pilgrims from nearby villages came to support the religious community that refused to give in to political pressure and remained faithful to the canonical Church.

Archpriest Vasyl Nachev, a cleric of the Rivne Eparchy and an eyewitness to all the events in Buscha – from the seizure to the construction of the new church – wrote on his Facebook page: “The faithful of Buscha prayed in part of the parish house throughout the entire period after the seizure. And today, on the day of their patronal feast, they entered their new church. They entered together with Christ, with love and spiritual joy. People rejoiced at the chance to celebrate St. Michael’s Day in their own church. They thanked God for such mercy. Christ never enters a church by force, with a crowbar. So in which church of Buscha was Christ today? You can guess for yourselves.”

As the UOJ reported, on May 11, 2019, in the village of Buscha, activists of the OCU blocked the UOC community from accessing their parish house.

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