OCU gives up its cleric who performed online communion

Cleric of Epiphany Dumenko’s church structure Igor Savva. Photo: zp.depo.ua

"Bishop" of the OCU Fotiy Davidenko sent an official request to the Zaporizhia Regional State Administration concerning the registration of the religious community of the OCU cleric Igor Savva, who’d performed the "online communion". This was reported by the Churcher Telegram channel.

The “hierarch” of the OCU made such a request after the spokesman of the OCU Eustraty Zoria and “metropolitan” of this church structure Alexander Drabinko stated that Savva did not belong to the OCU at all.

The Churcher drew attention to the strange response of the employees of the Zaporizhzhya Regional State Administration who were unable to reply to this request.

“Information on the registered religious communities in the region, headed by Igor Savva, is not available in the Department,” the RSA noted.

The Churcher staff drew attention to the fact that on January 18, 2019, Drabinko signed a temporary decree on the admission of Savva to the OCU.

“One could feel asking what is going on here? <...> What prevented during one year Metropolitan Alexander or Bishop Fotiy from admitting Father Igor with his flock on a regular basis? It’s not clear. It is also unknown what prevented the staff members of the Zaporizhia Regional State Administration from searching a little more carefully to find an answer to the request of Bishop Fotiy. As good as a circus,” the Churcher commented on the situation.

In his turn, the "clergyman" who performed the "online communion" is sure that he belongs to this church structure. He stated this in a comment under one of his posts on his Facebook page.

“So far, no one has removed me from the OCU,” Savva said.

On May 12, 2020, Dmitry Vaysburd, another cleric who participated in the “online communion”, was expelled from the OCU.

Read also