22 new churches of UOC built in 2021 to replace those seized by OCU

A church dome. Photo: interfax.com.ua

More than two dozen churches of the UOC were built in Ukraine in a year to make up for the seized by the OCU, 18 of the new churches have already been consecrated, reports the UOC Information and Education Department.

These data were announced at the final meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Also, the Synod participants noted a decrease in the number of raider seizures of UOC churches – in 2021, seven such cases were recorded. At the same time, there were 20 cases of robberies of churches and four acts of vandalism during the year.

A number of anti-constitutional statements by representatives of local authorities and calls for refusal to attend churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are also noted. Among the negative events of the year, the Synod of the UOC noted several actions against the construction of new churches of the UOC in those "hot spots" where they had been previously seized by schismatics.

As previously reported, the UOC Synod summed up the results and named the landmark events of 2021.

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