After church raid in Ivankiv, OCU seeks to ban UOC worship in a house

UOC faithful in Ivankiv at a prayer gathering. Photo: Pershyi Kozatskyi

In the town of Ivankiv, Kyiv region, clergy and activists of the OCU are increasing pressure on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos UOC community. After their church was seized in 2022, the faithful began holding services in a private house, but now they are being threatened with a ban on worship, Dozor reports.

During the raider seizure of the church in May 2022, locks were cut off with police support amid the shouting of a mob, leaving the community without its temple. The Orthodox parishioners then arranged to gather for prayer in a converted residential house. Over time, this prayer house became a spiritual center for dozens of UOC believers from nearby villages who had also suffered from OCU church takeovers.

However, according to the Dozor journalists, a group of activists supporting OCU cleric Ivan Slavych has begun exerting pressure on the Orthodox faithful. Believers are being intimidated with threats to close the house and even to set it on fire with worshippers inside.

Slavych himself filed a report with the police, accusing the UOC community of holding “illegal gatherings.” In the document, he also claimed that the large number of parishioners “causes concern” among his supporters. Dozor notes that such an appeal to the police resembles a denunciation, evoking memories of Bolshevik persecutions against the Church.

The situation escalated further on August 10, when one OCU activist flew a drone over the prayer house during worship. Eyewitnesses claim the device later landed on the grounds of the seized church. The UOC faithful submitted an official statement to the police regarding the illegal use of a drone during martial law and surveillance of people on private property.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in Bakhtyn, on the feast of St. Nicholas, a UOC community also prayed in a residential house.

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