Military recruitment officers detain UOC priest in Khmelnytskyi Eparchy

Archpriest Volodymyr Sereda. Photo: Khmelnytskyi Eparchy

The mobilization of clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has affected another priest. On June 10, 2026, at approximately 10:00 a.m., officers of the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center (TRC) detained Archpriest Volodymyr Sereda in the village of Korchivka, Khmelnytskyi District, and transported him to the 8th TRC and SSC Department of the Khmelnytskyi District in the town of Teofipol. The information was reported by the press service of the Khmelnytskyi Eparchy.

Archpriest Volodymyr Sereda serves as rector of the Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in Korchivka, within the Krasyliv Deanery. The priest is raising five children and caring for his elderly blind grandmother.

According to preliminary information, he was taken to Khmelnytskyi for a military medical commission examination. Communication with Fr. Volodymyr has reportedly been lost.

The Khmelnytskyi Eparchy appealed to clergy and faithful to offer prayers for the detained priest. In its statement, the diocese stressed that military service is incompatible with priestly ministry under the canonical law of the Orthodox Church.

According to Canon 83 of the Holy Apostles, a cleric who combines priesthood with military service is subject to defrocking. Canon 7 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council prohibits clergy from bearing arms, while the canons of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa state that taking a life, even in self-defense, results in suspension from priestly ministry.

The diocese called upon all people of goodwill to assist in securing the release of Archpriest Volodymyr Sereda and his return to his parish.

As previously reported by the UOJ, representatives of the TRC earlier detained a hierodeacon of the Pochaiv Lavra. Cases of the forced detention of Orthodox clergy in Ukraine have been reported since 2022. According to Church canons, a cleric takes an oath on the Gospel upon ordination and may neither take another oath nor bear arms.

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