UOC believers of Sumy to hold cross procession despite the prohibition of officials

Believers of the UOC in Sumy will hold the procession on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, despite the fact that officials have prohibited it, and consider the ban illegal, writes Podrobnosti.

On October 14, the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the believers planned to go to the destroyed Intercession Church to pray for peace. The cross procession is held annually, but this time the officials decided otherwise.

The parishioner of the UOC Oksana remembers how she was a participant of the religious procession two years ago. They walked from the Transfiguration Church to the Intercession Church. "On the site of the destroyed church, a service is performed, people pray for peace, for improvement in our state. This joint prayer is powerful, and the Lord protects our city from all disasters," she says.

This year two religious processions were planned in the eparchy: on October 14 – the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, and on October 22 – the feast of the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God, the patroness of Sumy. But after the application for the forthcoming event was submitted to the mayor's office, members of the Executive Committee decided to consider it.

As a result, officials voted against church processions. The faithful of the Sumy eparchy got to know about the decision from the media and consider it illegal. After all, the eparchy should only notify the city authorities about the planned event.

"The Executive Committee of the Sumy City Council takes such illegal decisions in spite of Article 39 of the Constitution of Ukraine, contrary to other legislative acts. The Executive Committee in this case is a successor of the Bolsheviks, who crushed, destroyed, crucified, humiliated our Christian national shrines," says Archbishop Eulogius of Sumy and Akhtyrka.

Voting against the procession, Vladimir Shteininger explains: in the city, they are afraid of provocation because the cross procession coincides with the Day of the Defender of Ukraine and the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks.

"And to avoid conflict situations and clashes, I believe that these days the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate can confine themselves to church services, because nobody cancelled the state holidays, they will not be postponed," says Vladimir Shteininger, a member of the Executive Committee of the Sumy City Council.

But believers assure that despite the prohibitions, they will hold the cross procession.