OCU and authorities skip court hearing on Cherkasy cathedral

Metropolitan Theodosiy with believers outside the courthouse. Photo: Cherkasy Blagovestnik Telegram channel

Representatives of the Cherkasy City Hall and the OCU failed to appear at a hearing they had initiated in the Commercial Court of Cherkasy Region over ownership of St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral, which was seized from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Cherkasy Blagovestnik Telegram channel reported the development.

The court was scheduled to consider an OCU lawsuit seeking to have the cathedral complex declared an unauthorized construction and to establish ownership rights for Epifaniy Dumenko’s organization over the cathedral, the eparchial administration building, an orphan school, and other churches, chapels, and auxiliary buildings.

Despite the plaintiffs’ absence, hundreds of believers from the Cherkasy Eparchy, led by Metropolitan Theodosiy, attended the scheduled hearing as public observers.

The parishioners were barred from participating in any other capacity. The court had rejected applications from the eparchy and more than 700 parishioners seeking to join the proceedings as third parties.

The court ruled that legally transferring the seized St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral to the OCU would not violate the rights of its lawful owners or religious community.

As a result, the clergy, monastics, and faithful who had personally helped build the cathedral, along with the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC – which claims ownership of the building complex – were denied the opportunity to participate in the proceedings.

OCU supporters seized St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral in Cherkasy on October 17, 2024. Since 2018, the cathedral had been privately owned by the Administration of the UOC Cherkasy Eparchy. In March 2024, however, Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice issued an order canceling the registration of those ownership rights. The UOC is challenging the legality of that order in the Commercial Court of Kyiv.

As the UOJ previously reported, an evening event featuring wedding rituals was held at the seized Cherkasy cathedral.

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