OCU “accepts” UOC community from Serbychany that voted against transfer

OCU “Bishop” Feohnost with “representatives” of the Serbychany community. Photo: press service of the OCU’s Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy

On May 19, 2026, at the administration of the OCU’s Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy, “Bishop” Feohnost held a meeting with “authorized representatives” of the religious community of the village of Serbychany. Following the meeting, he signed a “decree” accepting the parish of the Church of Archangel Michael into his structure. The OCU claimed that the “historic decision” to transfer had allegedly been made by 104 people at a meeting held on May 17.

However, the actual situation in Serbychany completely contradicts this claim. A meeting of the religious community showed that the overwhelming majority of believers – more than 400 people – voted to remain faithful to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the same time, there were only around 40 OCU supporters at the meeting, and only 20 of them turned out to be local residents.

Eyewitnesses said OCU activists led by the notorious raider Roman Hryshchuk used blatant manipulation to conceal their failure. At the meeting, the UOC dean was not allowed to speak, while selected camera angles were used for social media posts so that hundreds of faithful UOC parishioners would not appear in the frame. To justify the lack of support, Hryshchuk accused the faithful of “bringing in extras,” although the Serbychany community had previously recorded a public video appeal in support of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

Read also