OCU followers seize UOC church in vlg Penkivka, Vinnytsia Eparchy

On March 13, 2022, supporters of the OCU seized the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC in the village of Penkivka in the Lityn district of the Vinnytsia Eparchy, reports Matushka Svitlana Nedypich, the wife of Father Vitaliy, on her Facebook page.

"Three years of confrontations, threats, accusations, lawsuits of the religious communities of the OCU against the UOC in the village of Penkivka," Matushka wrote. “The result: despite the court decisions in favour of the UOC, despite the difficult situation in the country, when Christians have to unite against the common enemy and pray to God for peace... About 100 men from the neighbouring villages + a grinder – against 20 elderly women armed only with prayer... the triumph of Orthodoxy in the Penkivka way".

Svitlana stated: "While the enemy of Ukraine is tearing it up from the outside, our sons are dying, men are at war, the 'patriots' at the rear are tearing it up from the inside, fighting 80-year-old women and children.”

As the UOJ wrote, the parish of the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC in the village of Penkivka has resisted the forced transfer of the church to the OCU since 2019.

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