In Ternopil region Filaret followers again block UOC church

On June 25, 2017, supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate in the village of Kuty in the Shumsk district of the Ternopil region again prevebted the UOC community from entering its temple.

The community of the canonical Church, which is the rightful owner of the local St. Anna’s Church, has not been allowed to serve in the parish for almost two years. Even after losing the court for the right of ownership, the Kiev Patriarchate continues to block believers from entering the territory.

As the rector of the parish of the UOC, Archpriest Igor Kushniruk, told the UOJ, that day the believers tried to enter the church to celebrate the Sunday Divine Service. However, the supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate again confronted the fellow-villagers, blocking the entrance to the church. "We continue to fight for our church only in the legal field," the priest commented on the situation, writing a report to the police on the illegal actions of the community of the UOC-KP.

The conflict in the village has continued since the autumn of 2015. Since the "activists" failed to persuade the believers to "transfer" to the schismatics, they registered in Kuty the other religious community – of the Kiev Patriarchate. After the scandals and demands of the alternate services in the church belonging to the UOC believers, the KP supporters simply blocked the community of the canonical Church access to the premises and filed a lawsuit on suspending ownership rights of the UOC congregation to the church.

Since the spring of 2016, the community of the UOC has prayed on a private territory in a tent provided by demobilized parishioners and doesn’t give up attempts to sue its right to property, having successfully won the case at the cassation instance and at the first stage of the reconsideration.

Despite this, as Archpriest Igor Kushniruk reported, a few weeks ago local law enforcers decided to end two criminal proceedings on the applications of the affected community of the UOC. One of them concerned illegal retention of a cult building. On June 22, 2017, by a court decision the police were forced to resume the proceeding.