Court rules to transfer Holy Spirit Cathedral of UOC in Chernivtsi to OCU

The Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi. Photo: Wikipedia

On January 21, 2026, the Commercial Court of the Chernivtsi Region issued a decision in case No. 926/3233/25, granting the claim of the fictitious OCU community, “Religious Community of the Parish of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the OCU,” against the Administration of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to the court decision, the UOC is obligated to vacate the cathedral, the hotel, and the boiler house located at: 85, Holovna Street, Chernivtsi. The property must be transferred to the OCU with the signing of a corresponding transfer-acceptance act.

According to the OCU's claim, the UOC allegedly occupies and uses the specified buildings without legal grounds, creating obstacles for the "lawful owner."

To substantiate its demands, the plaintiff presented extracts from the State Register of Property Rights to Real Estate dated September 23, 2025, confirming the OCU community's ownership rights to the objects.

The UOC contested the legality of the ownership re-registration, pointing to obvious fraud: changes to the State Register were made before the official registration of the plaintiff itself as a legal entity of the OCU. The UOC also stated that it had filed a criminal complaint regarding abuse of official powers in making changes to the register.

UOC representatives twice petitioned to suspend the case proceedings – in connection with the consideration of an administrative case on recognizing the state registration as invalid and criminal proceedings. However, the court rejected both petitions.

The court stated that on February 16, 2025, a "general meeting of the religious community" took place, at which a decision was made to change canonical affiliation from the UOC to the OCU and to change the organization's name.

On February 20, 2025, the community's new statute was registered by order of the head of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration.

The court rejected the UOC's arguments about the illegality of registration actions, noting that questions regarding the legality of the state registrar's actions are not the subject of consideration in this case. The changes entered in the register are valid and have not been canceled in the manner established by law.

Regarding the date of registration of real estate ownership rights, the court indicated that these circumstances have no legal significance for resolving the dispute. The OCU's "ownership right" is confirmed by valid extracts from the State Register.

4,844.80 hryvnias of paid court fees were collected from the UOC in favor of the plaintiff.

The decision may be appealed to the Western Commercial Court of Appeal within 20 days. The full text of the decision was compiled and signed on January 26, 2026, by Judge Mykola Hurin.

It should be recalled that on February 16, 2025, in Chernivtsi, unknown individuals held a meeting under the fence of the UOC cathedral, at which they “transferred” three UOC churches to the OCU. At the same time, inside the cathedral itself, the religious community held its own lawful meeting and decided to remain within the UOC. A total of 4,506 people voted at that meeting. On June 17, OCU clergy brought a group of militants to the cathedral, who brutally beat the cathedral’s priests and seized the shrine for several hours.

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