Head of Khmelnytskyi council transfers 16 UOC temples to OCU in a month

Since April 2022, due to the efforts of local authorities, 16 churches of the UOC were transferred to the OCU in the Khmelnytskyi district. The head of the Khmelnytskyi District Council, Alexander Chernievich, reports about all the transfers on his Facebook page.

The official calls his activities the building of "spiritual independence" of Ukraine. Chernievich himself travels through the villages of Khmelnytskyi district and holds community meetings where residents vote for the transfer to the OCU.

The mass transfer of UOC communities to the OCU in the Khmelnytskyi district began after Chernievich met with the "bishop" of the OCU Pavlo Yuristy in April 2022 and discussed with him the "importance of the transfer to the OCU" of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Thus, in the Khmelnytskyi district, St. Nicholas’s Church in Antonivka, the Vvedensky Church in Pasichna and the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Holovchintsy were transferred to the OCU. 

Chernievich also initiated the seizure of St Michael’s Church in Tereshivtsi, St Basil’s Church in Hrechyntsi, St Michael’s Church in Chernelivka, the Trinity Сhurch in Cherepova, and the Saint John the Theologian Сhurch in Cherepivka. 

Dur to the efforts of the official, the believers lost the Intercession Church in Lezneve, the Assumption Church in Ruzhychne, Sts Peter and Paul’s Church in Sorokoduby and the Intercession Сhurch in Bakhmativtsi. 

The district churches in Motrunky, Mykhailivka and Pyrohivka were transferred to the OCU without participation of the parishioners.

As reported, the Khmelnytskyi authorities plan to ban the UOC from using land for churches.

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