OSCE studies religious situation in Krivoy Rog UOC diocese

Representatives of the Special Monitoring Mission got interested in the draft decision of Krivoy Rog City Council, which has to do with one of the diocese’s parishes. It is reported by the UOC Information and Education Department.

On 31 October representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission met with Metropolitan of Krivoy Rog and Nikopol Ephrem.

A matter of the visit was draft decision #50 of Krivoy Rog City Council “On approval of the land maintenance draft regarding allocation of the land plot in 45a Sviato-Nikolayevskaya Street, registration of the right to its communal ownership, and its transfer to the permanent use for locating a complex of buildings and constructions of the Orthodox church “Saint Nikolaos Church”.

Local mass media and activists who are opposed to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, made it a high-profile case and spoke against the transfer of the land plot to the “Moscow Patriarchate”, as they put it themselves.

“The crux of the conflict, aroused by activists, is that Krivoy Rog diocese did not file an application on allocation of the additional land plot for a church, but tries to formalize land documents for the Saint Nikolaos church, built as long ago as 2001,” explains the Information and Education Department.

Vladyka Ephrem expounded this situation to the SMM representatives and answered their questions.