Authorities and police decide to give UOC temple in Susval to OCU activists

The round table on the issue of religious conflict in Susval. Photo: UOJ

On February 21, 2020, a round table meeting was held in the council building of the Ovadne United Territorial Community of the Volyn region, gathered to discuss the religious conflict in the village of Susval, Volodymyr-Volynsky region, reports a UOJ correspondent.

The event was initiated by local authorities and law enforcement agencies. It was attended by Andrei Bokoch, the assistant to the people's deputy of Ukraine in this district Ihor Guz’.

The parish of the UOC in Susval was among the religious communities of the Volodymyr-Volynsky Eparchy re-registered to the OCU. The re-registration was carried out in March 2019, however, it was not easy to take away the church from the faithful since, in fact, the OCU activists in the village were in the minority.

On January 31, 2020, after several provocations against the parishioners, by the decision of law enforcement authorities, the temple of the UOC in Susval was sealed until the outcome of the conflict in court.

On the evening of February 14, activists of the schismatic church structure unlocked the temple and attempted to seize it, but the police took them out.

According to the participants of the round table from the UOC community, they were not allowed to express their point of view regarding the property conflict, interrupting and removing them from the premises.

As a result, the initiators of the meeting came to the conclusion that, despite the fact that the community’s re-registration is still being considered in court, on February 25, an inventory of the church property will be carried out for the further transfer of the building to OCU raiders, and on February 29 – March 1, the first “services” of representatives of the schismatic church structure will be held in.

The UOJ is monitoring the developments.

Earlier, on February 18, the Volodymyr-Volynsky “hierarch” of the OCU asked the President of Ukraine to treat the OCU “by law”, complaining of “oppression by representatives of the ROC in Ukraine” in the villages of Susval and Ovadne.

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