Brovary authorities transfer UOC monastery in Kniazhychi to OCU

Officials in Brovary have transferred the UOC Transfiguration Monastery in Kniazhychi to the OCU. Photo: monasteries.org.ua

On September 6, 2022, at a meeting of the executive committee of the city of Brovary (Boryspil Diocese), officials decided to lease to the OCU a complex of buildings in the village of Kniazhychi belonging to the UOC Transfiguration Monastery. Mayor Ihor Sapozhko reported this on his Facebook page.

“Today, at the meeting of the executive committee, the transfer for lease to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the complex of buildings and structures in the village of Kniazhychi, previously used by the Transfiguration Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was approved,” the official wrote.

He added: “At the previous session of the Brovary City Council, held on August 31, the deputies approved the termination of the permanent land–use right of the religious community of the Transfiguration parish of the Boryspil Diocese of the UOC in Kniazhychi,” noting that “the process continues.”

Sapozhko also stated that an inventory of monastery buildings had been conducted. He referred to them as “property of the joint territorial communities,” which the City Council decided to convert into municipal ownership. According to Sapozhko, unauthorized construction carried out by the UOC Transfiguration Monastery had been discovered on the land plot transferred to the monastery in 1998 by the Kniazhychi Village Council for permanent use.

As a reminder, in early May the Brovary City Council banned the activity of the UOC “due to martial law,” attempting to prohibit not only parish life but also the operation of UOC monasteries. Orthodox lawyers described the decision as legally invalid. Mayor Sapozhko and other officials also met with Dumenko, presenting themselves as a UOC religious community.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that according to the guidelines of the State Service for Ethnopolitics, authorities have no authority to initiate changes in religious affiliation.

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