Rector of Kamyanets temple recounts authorities’ attempt to expel community

St Nicholas Church in Kamyanets-Podilskyi. Photo: ukrainaincognita.com

The rector of the St. Nicholas Church in Kamyanets-Podilskyi recounted how representatives of the local authorities tried to expel his community from the temple despite the court ruling in favour of the UOC believers.

Archpriest Oleksiy Veresiuk told the UOJ correspondent that after the Supreme Court of Ukraine cancelled the decision of the Khmelnytsky Region Economic Court of 29 June 2023 to evict the St. Nicholas community of the UOC in Kamyanets-Podilskyi from the St. Nicholas Church and transfer the church to the local Reserve "Kamyanets", representatives of the executive service, together with the director of the Reserve, came to the church.

At the same time, the authorities called 5 police cars to try to forcibly expel the UOC community from their temple.

The representatives of the executive service and the Reserve were not stopped by the statement of the community's lawyer and the words of the church parishioners that the decision of the Supreme Court said that all previous court orders to evict the community from the temple had been terminated.

Thus, the directorate of the Reserve by its actions violated the Supreme Court's ruling, which came into force from the moment of its announcement, i.e. from 20 December.

Moreover, the representatives of the executive service forced the rector of the temple to sign the act of execution of the Economic Court's decision to evict the community which had been cancelled by the Supreme Court the day before.

Having failed to achieve their goal, the leadership of the Reserve through the press secretary of the mayor of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Alla Chepeliuk, who is actively involved in the seizure of UOC churches, published the information that the temple was taken away and handed over to the state, which is not true.

The rector of St Nicholas temple urged believers not to give up in such situations and as far as possible to defend their rights legally, remembering that God is not in strength but in truth.

As earlier reported, in Kamyanets, the Supreme Court sided with the UOC community in a dispute with the Reserve.

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