Deputy head of UOC DECR on Zadubrivka: the state must put an end

Victims of the attack of OCU activists on the church of the UOC in Zadubrivka. Photo: spzh.news

The state should put an end to the situation with the seizures of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC Department for External Church Relations, emphasized on the air of the KRT TV channel (46:42 minute video – Ed.).

“Until people come to their senses, until the OCU stops giving instructions to their “priests” – don’t do this, we haven’t taken a church from anyone – until then it will continue. And until the state begins to fulfill its direct function,” the clergyman answered the question of a KRT journalist about how long the bloodshed at the churches would last.

The clergyman noted that what happened in Zadubrivka is overt banditry.

According to him, after such actions of the adherents of the OCU, the people’s confidence in any religious organizations falls.

“All believers — Orthodox, Greek Catholics, and representatives of other faiths — are discredited by such things,” Archpriest Nikolai added.

According to the cleric of the UOC, with the advent of new power, believers have felt a relief. However, he drew attention to the fact that parishioners of the canonical Church are still forced to defend themselves.

On May 4, 2020, the day of the death of Archpriest Leonid Delikatny the rector of the St. Michael Church in the village of Zadubrivka, Chernivtsi region, OCU activists attempted to seize his temple. Believers of the UOC defended their church, however, during the clash, adherents of Epiphany Dumenko’s church structure severely beat some of them.

The “primate” of the PCU itself ignored the situation: he neither apologized to the victims nor punished the clergyman of the OCU, who participated in an attack on the UOC church.

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