Gorodenka City Council officially urges residents not to go to UOC temple

Home church of the UOC in Gorodenka. Photo: ivano-frankivsk.church.ua

In Gorodenka, Ivano-Frankivsk region, officials could not “stand aside” because of the opening of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the first and only church in the city since the 1990s, and appealed to local residents not to attend the services held there.

The text of the appeal, adopted by the deputies of the Gorodenka City Council on December 28, 2020, was published a week later by the mayor Bogdan Kobylyansky on his Facebook page.

The appeal of the deputies who cannot “stand aside from the events regarding the holding of services in the ‘new home temple’ belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in the city of Gorodenka” lists standard cliches and fake accusations against the UOC.

In particular, the clergy of the UOC were accused of refusing to honor the fallen Ukrainian soldiers, “openly supporting Russian terrorist mercenaries, <...> praying for the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, for the Russian army, which is killing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians,” and so on.

Referring to all the above as "facts", the deputies of the Gorodenka City Council called on "residents of the Gorodenka community not to attend services in the ‘new home church’ of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) on the territory of Gorodenka."

Recall that on December 19, 2020, believers of the UOC in Gorodenka performed the first service in the new home church – the only church of the UOC in the city since the 1990s: former Orthodox churches in different years were taken away by supporters of the UOC-KP and the Uniates.

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