Cherkasy Eparchy tells about the new scheme of transferring churches to OCU

Notary. Photo: Cherkasy.biz

The Cherkasy diocese has unveiled a new scheme with the help of which opponents of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in different regions of Ukraine have been seizing churches and property of the UOC for several months. Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy told about it at the meeting of deans and abbesses of the diocese.

Notaries print out information on notarial forms about allegedly held community meetings and certify the signatures of those who are listed as "participants in the relevant events" ((based on the principle "we attest not to the fact of the meetings, but to the fact that the names and surnames of the people who, as we were told, held the meetings, match the data in their passports").

In reality, these meetings are not held; the supporters of the OCU simply mark them on paper, certify them, ostensibly to confirm their personal data on notary forms, and then submit these pseudo-documents to re-register the charters of the congregations.

As a result, members of UOC congregations are forced to prove through the courts who actually owns the church property. This can take years.

According to Vladyka, in a similar way for six months, without the knowledge of rectors and communities, the charters of almost all parishes in one of the deans of Cherkasy diocese have already been re-registered in favor of the OCU. The same cases are observed in other dioceses of the UOC.

As the UOJ reported, the Cherkasy Convent of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, which the radicals seized for the OCU, is now empty.

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