Cathedral of Volyn Eparchy of OCU does not change its jurisdiction?

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Lutsk. Photo: vlasno.info

As of June 7, 2020, the main church of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Lutsk, has not changed its registration: its community remains in the jurisdiction of the Kyiv Patriarchate. This is evidenced by the data of the inquiry to the registry of legal entities of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the UOJ correspondent reports.

According to information from the registry, the legal entity "Religious Community of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate" under the number 21733474 has not yet been transferred to the religious organization of the OCU.

At the same time, according to the website of the Volyn Regional State Administration, on December 11, November 18 and March 6, respectively, the Head of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, Mikhail Zinkevich, re-registered several groups of communities in Lutsk city after joining the new religious structure but “forgot” about the cathedral.

Earlier, on August 19 and 29, by the orders of the RSA leadership, the re-registration of his communities was carried out by the head of the Vladimir-Volyn Diocese of the OCU Matthew Shevchuk. Similarly, in most of the other dioceses of the OCU, cathedrals were the first to be re-registered, simultaneously with the re-registration of the respective diocesan documents.

Recall, the director of the Lutsk publishing house “Initial” stated that “Metropolitan” Mikhail collects cash from tenants of commercial premises on the territory of the architectural monument occupied by the Kyiv Patriarchate – Bernardine Monastery, which is located in the complex with the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the disposal of Zinkevich.

The "St. Nicholas Monastery of the Lutsk-Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate", listed in the register under number 26278106, also remains in the jurisdiction of the UOC-KP. Its brethren actually initiated a hostile takeover of St. Nicholas temple of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Zhidychin village in February 2019, during which two parishioners of the UOC were beaten. The first re-registration of the UOC community affected by the raiders was carried out by the regional authorities very quickly – within five days, while the UOC church in Zhidychyn was the first to be transferred to the OCU in the region.

The UOJ also reported that the “hierarchs” Zinkevich and Bed’ delayed the recording of changes in the data about their dioceses compared with other “bishops” of the OCU.

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