Kiev Patriarchate promises to fight for the temple in Konstantinovka

On September 7 there will be held a session of the court of the last resort on the case of changing the confession of Sretensky temple of Konstantinovka city. Prior to that the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine in Kiev ruled a final decision in favor of Gorlovka eparchy of the UOC. Now the schismatics who did not turn up at public hearings claim that the temple belongs to them in anyway and they are determined to fight for it.

At a press conference held in “Ukrinform”, representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate stated that the believers had been deceived: in 2011, when the community was registered, they "did not know that the Kyiv Patriarchate exists."

Archbishop Evstraty (Zoria), the archpastor of the schismatics, accused the judicial system of Ukraine of corruption because of the fact that decisions are not made in favor of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

"After another corruption decision of the court, another attempt to seize the church by parishioners of the MP can be carried out in order to return it to the subordination of the Moscow Patriarchate," the KP speaker said. Obviously, this will lead to outrage of our community. Patriots of Ukraine will not allow to turn the Ukrainian Orthodox church in Konstantinovka, located a few kilometers from the line of demarcation in the Donbass, to the center of the "Russian world" again to support separatism and Russian aggression. And it is clear that the consequences of such a confrontation can be unpredictable."

The Sretensky temple of the UOC in Konstantinovka was captured by representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate in October 2015.

Commenting on the situation at hand around the church seized by the Filaret adherents, Metropolitan of Gorlovka and Slavyansk Mitrofan said, "We do not want to be in a situation where anyone, just because he wanted so much, would come, take away, expel people and say that "this is my community !". Therefore, it is natural that we participate in the judicial process. Ukraine is a rule of law, isn’t it? Let them answer the question: to whom this building belongs by law. We have where to pray. And the answer to the question, on whose side the truth is, can be received by coming to the Sunday service there and also to our temple. In this case our churches are guarded by noone: neither the police nor the armed people. There are no conflicts around. They protect themselves and fear themselves. And I feel sorry for them."

The UOJ follows the developments.