UOC Law Dept assesses statements of OCU about "seizures" of its churches

Archpriest Alexander Bakhov. Photo: news.church.ua

Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, Head of the Legal Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said in a comment to the UOJ that the statement of the OCU synod about the alleged regular seizures of its churches by the parishioners of the UOC is another manipulation in which "black is called white and vice versa."

Father Alexander noted that in its statement the OCU synod did not indicate a single case of the forceful seizure of their church by the parishioners of the UOC, since they simply do not exist. At the same time, what the OCU members are trying to pass off as "the transfer of the community to the OCU" is a seizure de jure and de facto. The head of the Legal Department specified that during the so-called "transitions" it is not the parishioners who vote for this decision, but the residents of the settlement where the temple is located, who are not members of the religious community. “Today decisions (on the transition – Ed.) are made at territorial gatherings with the participation of persons who have nothing to do with the religious community of the UOC and basically with the Church,” said Archpriest Alexander Bakhov. "This suggests that there is no transition, since it’s not parishioners who vote, but people who call themselves members of a religious community just because they simply live in this locality."

As proof of the absence of transitions, the head of the Legal Department of the UOC points out that after such a decision, a completely new community appears in the settlement, with other members, while the authentic community, which is deprived of property, continues its activities and builds a new church, etc. “Those parishes of the UOC, which, according to the OCU, have moved somewhere, continue to exist: they build new churches instead of the captured ones, pray there. If the parish moved somewhere, then who would be left without a church and have to build a new one for themselves? "

The head of the Legal Department of the UOC said that attempts to protect the interests of the UOC communities that have become victims of church raiding in the statement of the OCU synod are called "systematic pressure" on their parishes. “It turns out that our church is being seized, and when we are trying to protect it, we are suddenly accused of raiding? These actions of the OCU are akin to the activities of 'corrupt notaries' who fraudulently take apartments from people, and the attempts of the real owners to protect their property are called raiding. They turned everything upside down, coming up with new manipulations in the information field,” summed up Archpriest Alexander Bakhov.

As the UOJ reported, the OCU synod announced regular seizures by the UOC.

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