UOC Dormition community of Tarasivka does not allow raiders into temple

On October 19, 2022, in the village of Tarasivka, Kyiv region, activists of schismatic structures, along with representatives of local authorities, tried to cut the locks and seize the Holy Dormition Church of the UOC, the head of the All-Ukrainian organization "Women's Power of Ukraine" and lawyer Viktoria Kokhanovska reports on her Facebook page.

Church raiders, led, according to local residents, by representatives of the Kyiv Eparchy of the UAOC and the “priest” of the OCU, together with the chairman of the UTC and in the presence of the National Police and territorial defence forces, attempted to seize the sealed temple of the UOC.

The activists argued their actions by the decision of the meeting of the village residents called the “meeting of the religious community”, which voted for the “transfer” from the canonical Church to the OCU.

However, the actual members of the community, together with the clergy of the parish, rallied and did not allow the raiders to illegally enter the House of God. The believers called on law enforcement officials who were watching the events to stop lawlessness and draw up protocols on the violation of their rights as citizens of Ukraine.

The UOC community was actively supported by members of the All-Ukrainian organization "Women's Power of Ukraine". Its head Viktoria Kokhanovska noted that the OCU activists and local authorities deliberately mislead the residents of Tarasivka, calling the UOC "Moscow priests" and wanting to take away the newly renovated temple in their own selfish interests, obviously far from matters of faith.

“How can you make me worship the “cranes”? How can parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and we have already been "counted" and said that we are more than 4 million Ukrainians, how can we be forced to worship the "cranes"? How can I be forced not to believe in God, but to believe in "kalyna"? the Orthodox lawyer Kokhanovska wonders.

On August 21, 2022, in Tarasivka, more than 300 believers came to a service and offered prayers, while people far from the Church at an illegal meeting decided the fate of their Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.

On the same day, the abbot of the Zverinets Monastery of the UOC, Archbishop Kassian of Ivankiv, met with the parishioners of the Dormition Church of Tarasivka and offered them prayerful support.

As reported, an official was sued in Skvyra for dragging out the case against the OCU.

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