UOC calls media claims about “transfer” of Zhmudche parish to OCU a fake

Social media instead of documents: why the "transition" of the Zhmudche village community to the OCU is not confirmed. Photo: Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy

The press service of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has refuted claims circulating in the media and on social networks about an alleged “transfer” of the religious community of the village of Zhmudche to the OCU.

The wave of publications was prompted by a Facebook post by Andriy Sekh, the head of a religious community of the UOC–KP, who claimed that “the religious community of St. John the Theologian has joined the OCU.” The eparchy stressed that in Zhmudche there is, in fact, only one functioning community – the UOC – and it has made no decision to change jurisdiction.

The eparchy noted that the statement about a “transfer” is not supported by any of the basic indicators of genuine expression of will by the faithful. “Instead of documents and the will of local believers – a loud post on social media,” the press service remarked, emphasizing that the UOC community in Zhmudche does not have a formally registered legal entity and therefore could not hold statutory meetings or carry out registration actions. Moreover, the village has no church building, and the faithful pray in a house church.

It was also emphasized that occasional visits by a clergyman on feast days do not constitute a parish and provide no grounds to speak “on behalf of the community.” “The report about the ‘transfer of Zhmudche’ remains not an event, but a media statement – an attempt to ‘draw’ a community where another community is in fact functioning,” the eparchy said.

The eparchy also pointed to the legal inconsistency of the author of the claim: Andriy Sekh is the authorized representative of a parish in the town of Holoby, which is still registered as UOC–KP and has not been officially transferred to the OCU. In the eparchy’s view, such publications, against the backdrop of high-profile events in the region, may be used to create the illusion of “mass transfers”; however, without community decisions, minutes, and confirmed registration changes, such statements remain mere informational noise.

As the UOJ reported, a UOC hierarch visited persecuted communities in Volhynia during the Nativity season.

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