Cherkasy convent seized by OCU raiders stands empty

The Cherkasy Convent of the Nativity of the Theotokos, raided by radicals for the OCU, is now empty, said the head of the Legal Department of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC, Archpriest Georgy Pogranichny in an interview with the Telegram channel "Dozor on KozakTV1".

According to him, for some time military men lived on the territory of the convent but now it is "in a state of complete calm".

"It is impossible to talk about this place being filled with believers of another denomination because there are none at all," the priest said. “In fact, [convent] is empty. They attend it, of course: they come, open, invite, and make certain advertising actions on the Internet, so that people come, but it does not work. People don't go there."

The priest noted that the "rector" of the convent church (Archpriest Joseph Zasansky, who is banned from the priesthood – Ed.) recently said on TV that it would be very difficult for the OCU to maintain this convent, as "the costs of it are unaffordable for them".

"It is unclear what they seized it for if they don't even know how to maintain it," Fr. Georgy stressed.

He also said that the faithful of the UOC, who went to the church in the convent, found a place to perform services.

"Archbishop Ioann organised everything for prayer to be performed so that people do not scatter and the community survives," said the priest.

As reported, law enforcers have opened five criminal cases in connection with the attack by radicals on a convent in Cherkasy, but the investigation is at the initial stage.

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