Cherkasy Eparchy reports document forgery concerning Vorontsov Church

The UOC Savior–Transfiguration Church in Cherkasy. Photo: Cherkasy Eparchy

On April 16, 2024, the Cherkasy Eparchy  of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stated that documents had been falsified on the basis of which the Savior–Transfiguration religious community of the village of Moshny in Cherkasy District was re-registered under the OCU.

“As has already become customary in recent months, for the purpose of a raider seizure of yet another Orthodox church, the OCU has even stopped, as it used to do before, holding fake meetings of territorial communities that were later passed off as meetings of ‘religious communities,’” the Cherkasy Diocese said.

According to the diocesan press service, a month earlier an “OCU cleric,” Mykola Yevheniev, “somewhere at his home, acting alone,” and even without the knowledge of the territorial community of Moshny and the head of the Moshny hromada (OTG), Bohdan Shkarbuta, held a “meeting of the religious community on changing its affiliation to the OCU.” The diocese stresses that no real meeting of the Orthodox parish took place, and that the minutes of this alleged meeting are forged.

“Contrary to the law, without any authority to do so – without the parish Statute and without the parish seal – Mykola Yevheniev, through his intermediary, submits the relevant forged minutes of the ‘religious community meeting’ to the Department of Culture and Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Cherkasy Regional State (Military) Administration,” the statement says.

On April 4, 2024, state registrar Yevhen Shtryk made changes in the EDRPOU record for the Savior–Transfiguration religious community, unlawfully changing its name, replacing its head, and removing the founder of the religious community.

“Now only one small step remains – to bring in militants with clubs and angle grinders, beat and drive the parishioners out into the street, and hand over the beautiful historic Vorontsov church for OCU use. And another ‘voluntary transfer of the religious community’ will have taken place!” the diocese wrote.

As the diocesan press service explained, the landmark church – part of Count Vorontsov’s palace-and-park ensemble in Moshny near Cherkasy – was built in 1839 by the architect Giorgio Torricelli. For all these years it has been maintained by the Savior–Transfiguration religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “which has no intention whatsoever of ‘transferring’ anywhere from its confession.”

As the UOJ previously reported, the OCU "priest" urged parishioners to pressure the authorities to ban the UOC.

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