Parishioner from Berestye: We still have confrontation in the village

Ulyana Taborovets. Photo: UOJ

On February 22, at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, at the Congress of the persecuted communities "Faithful", Mother Ulyana Taborovets, the wife of the rector of the seized church in the village of Berestye, Archpriest Sergey Taborovets, told a UOJ correspondent that two years after the seizure of the church, enmity still reigns in the village and called on the authorities not to divide people into "friends" and "foes" since everyone has equal rights before the law.

“Two years have passed, and only now families are starting to communicate, only now! Until recently, even families haven’t communicated. But even now it is impossible to say that everything has passed. We still have a war in the village because there is a division into ‘friends’ and ‘foes’,” said the priest’s wife.

She does not understand why the authorities regard the believers of the UOC as second-rate people.

“I am also a citizen of Ukraine. My children are citizens of Ukraine. We speak, we communicate at home in Ukrainian. We sing Ukrainian songs every other day. And why am I then a "Moscow traitor"? Just because I have not betrayed the faith? According to the Constitution of Ukraine, we all have the right to faith. By conscience. Whoever wants to – keep their faith. Here even Satanists can pray, Muslims can pray, right? And Orthodox Christians of the Moscow Patriarchate, as they call us, have no right to even normally bury a person in their village! Why?!” she wonders.

“We have had a case in the village recently,” Ulyana recalls. “We buried a senior woman, who was 100 years old. And when their "priest" (of the OCU – Ed.) was passing by, he asked - and whose funeral was that? And they answered him – that of Moscow died. Has she ever been to Moscow in her 100 years? What kind of Moscow is she?! She is Ukrainian. She devoted her whole life to Ukraine. I want to ask the authorities – do not divide people, give us the opportunity to pray. Look – how many churches were taken – after all, no one took them back by force, right? Therefore, there is only one request to the authorities – let us register as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, give us the opportunity to build up. Because, for example, our head of the village council said you will crawl to my knees to beg for land, but I won't give it to you. We didn't save the temple, true. But we saved people. All people are with us – everyone who was with us remains.”

“We ask: at least give us back our registration (of the communities – Ed.). We have nothing – neither registration nor the church. Therefore, to say that we have gone through it ... No, it isn’t over yet. We are still experiencing it, every time. Many priests have left our village. And when you watch someone serve in the cathedral, and you humble yourself and serve in the hut, it is difficult to express this to you. Only the one who experienced it may understand that,” she added.

As previously reported, members of the OCU with officials cut off the locks on the church and beat the believers in Berestye.

Как ранее сообщал СПЖ, в Берестье члены ПЦУ с чиновниками срезали замки на храме и избили верующих.

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