OCU members seize St. John the Theologian church of UOC in vlg Krasnosilka

The "priest" of the OCU served a "thanksgiving prayer" after the seizure of the UOC temple. Photo: facebook Krasnosilka – an interaction territory

On September 3, 2021, supporters of the OCU committed a forceful seizure of the St. John Theological church of the UOC in the village of Krasnosilka, Vinnytsia region, the press service of the Tulchin Eparchy reports.

The dean of the Bershad church district, Archpriest Oleg Murakhovsky, reported on the illegal actions of the raiders.

According to the dean, at 10 o'clock in the morning the villagers called him and told that the OCU members, led by their “priest” Rostislav Protsanin, were conducting services on the territory of the St. Theologian church, which had been earlier sealed by the police. At that time, there were already two police cars near the temple, allegedly to "ensure the protection of law and order."

The supporters of the OCU were trying to break into the church house of a priest of the rural community of the UOC, Fr. Andrei Koziuk, in which the attackers broke windows and doors and told the priest to pack his things, "because tomorrow they will not be there."

At 12.15 pm, the dean reported the ongoing arbitrariness to line 102, but the investigative-operational group arrived at the scene at 14.55, although the distance from the regional department to the village was only 65 km. Only after calling the hotline of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did the police begin collecting statements and reports, but the organizer of the seizure of the temple, Rostislav Protsanin, had already left by this time.

As noted in the message on the website of the diocese, the chairman of the Bershad OTG, Mr. Nechitailo, had an "spoken order from the leadership" to ensure the "correct" solution to the church issue.

“It seems that after the end of the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to Kyiv, the high supporters of Phanar ‘gave a go-ahead’ to all local authorities to facilitate the seizure and re-registration of the churches of the UOC, including in the Bershad region, in favor of the so-called OCU, not waiting for final decisions of the Supreme Judicial Authority of Ukraine,” the Tulchin diocese specified.

On September 4, 2021, schismatics from the OCU performed a “thanksgiving prayer" in the captured church in Krasnosilka village.

The raiders expressed their gratitude to the law enforcement officers for ensuring law and order on the territory of the temple and the adjacent territory. The raiders claim that the OCU community entered the temple "on the basis of the court decisions of all instances."

The supporters of the OCU have tried to seize the St. John the Theological church in vlg Krasnosilka of the Vinnytsia region since 2019 after an illegal meeting of villagers on the re-subordination of the church to the OCU. The UOC community defended its right to the church and a church house in court. All this time, services in the temple were not performed; it was sealed by the police.

As the UOJ previously reported, the family of the UOC priest is being evicted from the church house in Krasnosilka.

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