OCU on the visit of Cypriot cleric to Bronitsa: some archimandrites came

Cleric of the Cyprus Church in the home church of the UOC in Bronitsa, 2019. Photo: Volyn diocese

“Priest” Oleg Mitsko from the village of Krymno (Bronitsa), Volyn region, spoke about the “provocations” of the believers of the UOC and their attempts to show the OCU in a bad light before “some archimandrite”.

“They (the UOC community – Ed.) were serving in the house at that time,” Mitsko said in an interview with the Religion Pravda resource. “Some delegations came there, some archimandrite, and told them that our parishioners allegedly beat them and carried out pogroms in their house ... Well, they were not telling the truth.”

According to him, the “transfer” of the parish to the OCU was voluntary; they voted “according to all the rules”, while the UOC “they concocted all sorts of nonsense” and engaged in slander.

Let us remind you that the Orthodox parish in the village of Krymno, which belonged to the united community of the adjacent villages of Krymno and Bronitsa, was re-registered in favor of the OCU as one of the first in Volyn in 2019. The temple itself was seized in the winter of 2019, with the assistance of local authorities, but the authorities finally transferred it to the OCU only in September 2021.

In 2019, the parish of the UOC in Bronitsa, among other communities affected by raiding, was visited by a representative of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, secretary of the Tamassos diocese, Archimandrite Nektarios (Bakopoulos). The priest was struck by the deep faith of the persecuted parishioners and their devotion to the Church.

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