Khmelnytsky Eparchy: Temples being seized without waiting for court ruling

St. Michael's Church in the village of Galuzintsi, Khmelnytsky district. Photo: wikimapia.org

In the Khmelnytsky Eparchy, supporters of the OCU illegally seize the temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, without waiting for the final court decision, said the eparchy lawyer Yaroslav Pasechnik in a commentary to the “1Kozak” channel.

Since 2019, when Ukraine adopted a law simplifying the procedure for the transfer of religious communities to another confession, about 10 communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were forcibly "transferred" and re-registered to the OCU in the Khmelnytsky Eparchy.

“For two years, our courts lasted. <...> At that time, the Supreme Court determined that these were economic matters, so we applied to the Economic Court of the City of Kyiv. Court hearings were held, and in fact, in all these cases, decisions were made in favour of the UOC communities. It was decided that the meetings were held with violations, the statutes of the religious communities of the UOC were not observed. The court cancelled the orders of the administration on re-registration in favour of the OCU since in most cases such meetings were held simply by residents of the village and very often by non-Orthodox Christians,” said Yaroslav Pasechnik.

Further, he explained, these court decisions were transferred to the Court of Appeal and, under the influence of some political factors, a number of them were cancelled, and a number were “handed over to the Supreme Court, where they are still being considered. In particular, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court is due on 16 February to determine the jurisdiction of such disputes, i.e. whether we applied to the Economic Court correctly, or whether we need to apply to the general court at the place of registration of the religious community”.

However, the lawyer of the Khmelnytsky Eparchy stated that in recent days the supporters of the OCU, having no legal basis and without waiting for final court decisions, broke down the locks and actually took possession of the churches of the UOC in the villages of Galuzintsi, Derazhnia district, Lysogorka and Stavnitsa, Letychiv district.

“The most gross violation was when the rector of the church in Lysogorka performed the divine service before Theophany, on January 18 this year, and at that time people simply came, unreasonably broke into and seized the temple,” Pasechnik said. “Then they simply informed the priest that the church was now theirs, while the case is in the Appellate Court of the Khmelnytsky region. Without waiting for the final decision of the court, unfortunately, the supporters of the OCU, who are in the minority, took possession of the temple. "

He stressed that the lawyers and clergymen of the Khmelnytsky Eparchy of the UOC rely on the Law and continue to act exclusively in the legal field. However, according to him, the analysis of judicial practice on religious organizations over the past two years shows that the situation as a whole is complicated: at the legislative level and at the level of the Supreme Court, it has not yet been clearly formulated which court should protect the rights of members of a religious organization.

“But time is passing, and parishioners are not able to pray in their church,” he added. “A situation has arisen when the issue of jurisdiction (judicial, - Ed.) came first, and the courts quite often simply refuse, saying that the parishioners are applying to the wrong court. Although there is a practice of the European Court of Human Rights that the issue of jurisdiction should not influence and violate the rights of persons who applied to the court."

Also, the lawyer of the Khmelnytsky Eparchy of the UOC pointed out the difficulties with the registration of new communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in connection with the law on the forced renaming of the Church, which officials refer to, and “while many communities are forced to operate without the status of a legal entity”.

“Now the Church is awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the law on renaming - whether the state has the right to force a legal entity, the Church, which consists of many thousands of parishes, to change its name. If there is a decision that this law does not comply with the Constitution, the religious communities of the UOC will be able to register and act in accordance with the statute of the UOC and current legislation,” concluded Yaroslav Pasechnik.

Earlier the Legal Department of the UOC reported about the illegal collection of information by local officials about the parishes and priests of the UOC. 

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