Lutsk Council bans UOC in the region and calls to "return Lavras to people"

On September 29, 2022, at the next session of the Lutsk District Council, deputies accepted a petition to the authorities of Ukraine on the banning of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the territory of the country and about the "return to the people" of the Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochaiv Lavras, the text of the petition published on the Lutsk District Council's Facebook page. The deputies also demanded that the head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration cancel the statutes and state registration of religious communities of the UOC in the territory of the Volyn region.

In the appeal, deputies of the Lutsk district council stated that the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are "anti-state and anti-Ukrainian in nature." People's elected officials accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of "divisive policies on religious grounds", of creating "preconditions for religious confrontation in society", and also of the fact that the canonical Church "tells everyone around about the terrible inter-religious situation in Ukraine".

Deputies stated that the clergy of the UOC had not repented, that the activities of the UOC "undermine the territorial integrity, sobornost and statehood of Ukraine", are directed "to support the genocide of the Ukrainian people" and pose a "direct threat to the life, health, security, honor and dignity of Ukrainians".

"The structure <...> cannot be reformed or changed, it must be liquidated," Lutsk deputies emphasized.

Therefore, they called on the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Security Council to "adopt the Law on the Prohibition of the UOC-MP in Ukraine" and "return of such Ukrainian religious shrines as the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra to the Ukrainian people."

The people's elected officials obliged the head of the Volyn RMA Yury Pogulyaiko to "immediately cancel the statutes and state registration of religious communities of the UOC in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation" in the territory of the Volyn region.

Separately, the deputies appealed to the believers of the UOC. They were offered to "discard misunderstandings and doubts" and "build a united Orthodox independent Ukrainian church."

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council called on the Verkhovna Rada to "return the UOC Lavra to the people."

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