UGCC parish expels their priest: "We need to fight, not build a church"

Protest of UGCC Parishioners. Photo: Informator

The UGCC community of Bolekhiv in the Ivano-Frankivsk region is in conflict with the priest serving at the Church of Saint Paraskeva, Vasyl Dziailo, and they are demanding his replacement by the Ivano-Frankivsk Archdiocese of the UGCC, where they are gathering for a protest, reports Informator.

The parish's complaint is that Dziailo started renovations in the church without consulting anyone, and the increased expenses fell on the parishioners, who had to finance the repair work. The priest's complaint is that the parish council (a consultative body in the church) is unable to organize or do anything; they only control the money.

The UGCC parishioners collected 400,000 hryvnias, three-quarters of which they wanted to donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), and the remaining quarter to the church.

"We believe that if we lose this war, we won't need these churches. They will either be destroyed or burned. We need to win the war first, and then develop the churches," says Yaroslav Pankiv, one of the opponents of the priest's actions.

The priest's position on the allocation of these funds was as follows: 50% to be given to the army, and 50% to be kept by the church to support its activities for the entire year.

According to him, the parish council independently managed most of the funds, and the UGCC cleric could not determine where they went.

The church community claims that they have written several times about the situation to the head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, but have not received a response.

As the UOJ previously reported, the head of the UGCC earlier called for not turning the AFU into an idol.

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