MP about UOC temple in Pushcha-Voditsa: Moscow Patriarchate, get out

Solomiya Bobrovskaya with Dumenko and Zoria. Photo: Bobrovskaya’s Facebook page

The people's deputy of the Golos party, Solomiya Bobrovskaya, said on her Facebook page that the UOC should free the Chapel of the Martyr John the Warrior, which is located on the territory of the hospital for war veterans in Pushcha-Voditsa.

“The Moscow Patriarchate – get out,” wrote Bobrovskaya. “If in September the ROC does not vacate the territory of the hospital, I will write an appeal to the Prosecutor's Office and ask to open criminal proceedings for the unauthorized seizure of a land plot. We hit this rock further. Calmly, methodically, in legal ways."

A small wooden church-chapel at the hospital in Pushcha-Voditsa was built in January 2007. At first, it was a small building that housed several people. In 2010, thanks to the efforts of the then rector, Priest Pavel Tarasov, the patients of the sanatorium and the parishioners of the chapel, the church was enlarged. In 2016, a new iconostasis was installed in the church.

Since 2014, Archpriest Andrei Antoshchuk has been the rector of the church-chapel.

Father Andrei commented to the UOJ on the situation around the chapel in Pushcha-Voditsa.

“This story has been going on for a whole year. In 2007, the Afghan veterans built a chapel and, unfortunately, put it on the balance of the hospital, later the then rector agreed with the chief physician and made an extension. In 2014, I came here as a rector, we tried to arrange a lease, but it didn’t work. Under the new chief physician, Ksenia Borisovna Voznitsyna, who came here three years ago, they made a hospital out of the sanatorium, began to send ATO veterans here and started driving us out. They do not want to make any compromises, they say that the "Russian church" should not be here. We are now looking for where to move, by and large we are being thrown out to nowhere,” Father Andrey said.

According to the priest, the hospital administration demanded that the UOC community vacate the chapel on June 1, but after the priest wrote a letter to the chief physician, they gave a delay until September 1.

Father Andrei said that at the moment about 30 people are permanent parishioners of the chapel in Pushcha-Voditsa, mostly people who live near the hospital. He believes that after the UOC community is expelled, the chapel will be handed over to the OCU.

“The parishioners of the chapel are harassed on the street by ATO veterans who are treated in the hospital. The chaplains of the OCU were sent to the hospital, but we (the priests of the UOC – Ed.) are not allowed there. Those (chaplains – Ed.), probably, "work" well, wind up against us. Most likely, if we are kicked out of the chapel, the OCU will occupy it,” Father Andrei added.

The Right Sector also took control of the situation. On June 22, Dmitry Savchenko, a representative of the First Assault Company of the DUK PS, on his Facebook page urged his comrades-in-arms to be “on the alert, you may have to mobilize upon a call and push the Katsap scum out of the Rehabilitation temple. Together we will defeat the hog-faced kokoshniks!"

As reported, Solomiya Bobrovskaya, together with Nikita Poturayev, initiated an inter-factional deputy union “For the United Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church“. At a time when the Russian church became more active (now we are not talking about faith) and spreads fakes about the coronavirus and the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is more important than ever to support those who do not close their doors to people who are looking for either themselves or God. And also - it's about state security," said the people's deputy.

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