Prosecutor’s Office demands that UOC hand over to state Staryi Pochaiv church

Holy Protection Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Staryi Pochaiv, Kremenets District. Photo: Pochaiv Theological Seminary

The Ternopil Oblast Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit in the Commercial Court demanding that the Holy Protection Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Staryi Pochaiv (Kremenets District) be returned to state ownership. This was reported by the press service of the Ternopil regional prosecutor’s office.

The agency stated that the case concerns an architectural monument of national significance which, according to the prosecutor’s office, was unlawfully transferred into the private ownership of a religious organization of the UOC. The prosecutor’s office is asking the court to cancel the registration of ownership rights and to return the property to the state.

As the supervisory body reports, in 2018 a state registrar from one of the settlement councils in Kremenets District made changes to the register, as a result of which a religious organization of the Ternopil Eparchy of the UOC obtained private ownership rights to the church and a complex of buildings. The prosecutor’s office considers these actions unlawful and insists they be annulled.

The Holy Protection Church, built in 1643, is an outstanding example of wooden architecture of the Volhynian school and has the status of an architectural monument of national significance.

A discussion unfolded in the comments under the Ternopil regional prosecutor’s Facebook post. Some users criticized the agency’s initiative. One commenter, Nataliia, wrote: “Seriously – a state monument? If the state builds it, then let it be state-owned. But as long as people built it, the state has nothing to do with it. Let it first put things in order near the trash bins.” She also emphasized: “A church is the House of God, where prayer should sound – not a museum for visitors, which is what the state will turn it into.”

At the same time, another commenter, Vasyl, expressed a different view, noting that the church is “property of the community with historical value” and should be under state protection; and that the form of ownership, in his opinion, should be state rather than private.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that a court in Khmelnytskyi awarded the Dormition church in Letychiv to a fictitious OCU community.

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