After siege of UOC temple in Halynivka, OCU activists hang their locks

Temple of the UOC in Halynivka. Photo: news.church.ua

On October 5, 2020, raiders from the OCU, who the day before broke into the UOC temple in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the village of Halynivka, Volyn region, hanged their locks on the church in the presence of law enforcement officers. The rector of the church, Archpriest Alexei Sharan, announced this in a comment to the UOJ.

The priest said that along with other priests of the UOC, he remained in the besieged church without water and food for more than a day, since the supporters of the OCU warned them: they can leave the church, but no one will let them back. “We sat there as long as our physical state allowed us to,” Fr. Alexei explained.

“Yesterday when we came to the church to perform a divine service, the OCU activists came in,” he described the events of Sunday. “Until four o'clock in the afternoon, I explained, talked, persuaded, showed and read out the documents for the temple, for the premises, told them that all this is registered after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Nobody wanted to listen."

The rector added that the day before, on October 3, he met with the police chief and showed him all the original documents and extracts from the register, “the chief agreed, and we thought that everything would be fine, and law and order would be ensured.”

“But the police came and stood aside. I also called the police service 7-8 times so that it could sort out the inaction of the police. We, three priests, were forced to sit for a whole day. The fourth went out to baptize a child and was not allowed back. We sat without food, without water, without any access to sanitation. Prayers, akathists, canons were served, vespers were served, then the night liturgy. The OCU people came up, began to serve some kind of prayer service and interrupt us. Their "priest" was parading like a king, then another 6 or 7 people came. The police didn't say a single word,” he stressed.

While under siege, the priests recorded a video message describing the situation and asking for prayers. The appeal was published by “First Cossack” on its Facebook page.

In the morning, when supporters of the OCU began to disperse, the priests of the UOC decided to take the opportunity and close the temple.

“But someone saw us, raised a cry and they immediately began to flock here,” Fr. Alexei explained. “The police also approached the premises, but instead of pushing back the supporters of the OCU, they began to push us back. When asked why us, they answered, "We are ensuring order."

The rector was not allowed back, and when he returned home, he found out that the supporters of the OCU had changed the locks on the church and claimed that it until the issue had been resolved, no one would pray there.

The UOJ is following the developments.

Let us remind you that on October 4, aggressively minded adherents of the OCU tried to seize the UOC church in Halynivka, having cut the tires on the cars of the priests of the canonical Church before that. The priests of the UOC remained in the altar in order to prevent intruders from entering the most holy place of the temple.

Earlier, in Halynivka, a "gathering for the OCU" was organized but the permanent members of the UOC community did not take part in this.

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