UOC community in Serbychany votes against transfer to OCU

Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in the village of Serbychany. Photo: open sources

On May 17, 2026, parishioners of the UOC’s St. Michael Church in the village of Serbychany, Chernivtsi region, confirmed their decision to remain within the canonical Church.

Despite loud claims by the notorious OCU raider Roman Hryshchuk, who was also present at the meeting, actual support for the OCU in the village proved limited. According to UOJ sources, only 40 OCU supporters were present, of whom just 20 were local residents. At the same time, more than 400 parishioners confirmed their loyalty to the canonical Church.

Although the real majority of residents supported the UOC, Hryshchuk hastened to claim that the community had allegedly “transferred” to the OCU. In his post, he declared a “victory” and said that 104 people had supposedly voted to leave the UOC. He also accused UOC supporters of trying to “disrupt the meeting” and of bringing in a “crowd” from other regions.

To conceal the failure, OCU supporters used familiar methods of manipulation. Activists ignored the UOC faithful and chose selective camera angles so that the overwhelming majority of UOC believers would not appear in the frame. “Our dean, who came to the meeting, was not allowed to speak; only Hryshchuk spoke,” eyewitnesses said.

As previously reported by the UOJ, the UOC religious community of Serbychany had earlier confirmed its loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, in a special video address. At that time, the faithful of St. Michael Parish publicly testified to their church position, condemning Russian aggression and expressing support for Ukraine’s defenders.

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