Ivano-Frankivsk mayor: We will finish off the last UOC parish in the region
On July 24, 2022, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Ruslan Martsynkiv shared his plans to get rid of the last community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the region this year and expressed the hope that after that the communities of the UOC will disappear in Ukraine altogether. This is reported by zahid.espreso.tv.
The mayor noted that there is only one UOC community in the region, but the city authorities re-registered it in favor of the OCU, but the priests of the canonical Church do not give up. Officials sued them for not allowing schismatics to serve in the church. “I think we will settle this matter, and the last parish of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Ivano-Frankivsk region will fall. We believe that Frankivsk can serve as a role model for all regions,” Martsinkiv said.
He added that it is impossible to simply “ban” the UOC by order of the city authorities, since “this decision is legally non-binding”, but one should work with the community instead. According to him, the authorities of Ivano-Frankivsk managed to convince the parishioners and the community moved to the OCU, but failed to convince the priests of the UOC.
“Therefore, we are doing our best to make sure that by the end of the year this last community will be transferred (to the OCU – Ed.),” the mayor announced his plans, adding that the community “de jure passed and the property belongs to the OCU community.” He is sure that the supporters of the UOC "will still try to put a spoke in the wheel", but it’s not worth paying attention to that.
“I just want to do everything in a civilized, constitutional and legal way,” Martsinkiv stressed.
As the UOJ wrote, the community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ivano-Frankivsk appealed to the President of Ukraine with a demand to stop the mayor’s arbitrariness.
Read also
In Nigeria, 130 hostages abducted from Catholic school released
The country's authorities reported the release of the last hostages – victims of the attack on the Catholic school.
Zelensky wishes death to Putin in his Christmas message
The presidential address included the phrase "May he parish", said in the context of a Christmas wish.
Hungarian authorities to fund restoration of Serbian Church monastery
The Government of Hungary has allocated funds for the reconstruction of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Zelensky: All Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on the same date
Volodymyr Zelensky recorded a new video with Christmas greetings.
Instead of Christmas: Zelensky declares January 7 Programmer’s Day
Zelensky decided that January 7 is the most appropriate date for introducing a new holiday.
OCU equates UOC’s losses from “transfers” with losses caused by occupation
In Dumenko’s circle, the losses suffered by the UOC due to so-called “voluntary transfers” to the OCU were equated with losses resulting from occupation and the re-subordination of communities to the Russian Orthodox Church.