Rector: Visiting radicals want to seize the temple in Semipolky
Holy Trinity Church in the village of Semipolky, Kyiv region. Photo: semipolki.church.ua
On January 15, 2022, a meeting of the local community will be held in the village of Semipolky, Brovary district, Kyiv region, at which local residents will discuss the issue of transferring the Holy Trinity Church to the jurisdiction of the OCU.
As the rector of the temple, Archpriest Mykolai Lesko, told the UOJ, the reason for such a sudden desire to seize the church was the recent funeral service for a deceased soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, performed “in Russian”.
“On December 22, 2022, we buried Ihor Vasylenko, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” says the priest. “He died in Avdiyivka. Some were indignant that we served ‘in Russian’, although it was in Church Slavonic. However, it had to be done in Ukrainian, in their opinion. Then this dirt got disseminated in local publics."
Batiushka is agitated by the overly aggressive rhetoric of some local residents who do not want a parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to exist in the village.
Even on New Year's Eve, a parish meeting was held in the church, at which its members testified their loyalty to the UOC and His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
Fr Mykolai noted that all the initiators of the seizure were visitors from the neighboring village of Rusaniv and had nothing to do with the community.
“We will stand, defend ourselves with all our strength,” the rector says. “I have already consulted with the members of our community, we will go to this meeting, we will listen to them. But if they raise the issue of transition, we will leave this action. If they want to form an OCU parish in the village, somewhere else, we do not mind, let them do what they want. But if the question of our parish arises, then it is out of question.”
As the UOJ reported, earlier, OCU supporters seized a temple in honor of the Archangel Michael of God and all the Bodiless Heavenly Forces in the village of Bilohorodka, Kyiv region.
Read also
Dumenko "blesses" SBU facility for forensic examination
The head of the OCU noted the "special role" of the Institute of Special Technology and Forensic Expertise of the SBU.
ROC head: Attempts to impose special powers of Pat. Bartholomew are sinful
Patriarch Kirill stated that the doctrine of special powers of the Patriarch of Constantinople is being imposed from outside.
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces LGBT festival near Sodom and Gomorrah
Israeli authorities are promoting a large-scale gay event at the Dead Sea on social media, which has caused criticism and bewilderment among Christians.
In Bila Tserkva, man nearly killed for greeting "Christ is risen!"
Two non-Orthodox individuals aged 19 and 23 tracked down a 35-year-old Orthodox Christian after an Easter greeting, knocked him down and inflicted several knife wounds to his abdomen and neck.
In Uganda, Islamists kill Protestant pastor after sermon
In Uganda, a Protestant church pastor who preached among Muslims was stabbed to death after a sermon.
Spanish court rules Jehovah’s Witnesses may be called a “destructive sect”
A court in Spain has upheld the right of critics of Jehovah’s Witnesses to speak openly about the group’s alleged harmfulness and danger to society.