Uniates explain temple seizure in Kolomyia by the “open church door”

Chairman of the UGCC Commission for Interdenominational and Interreligious Dialogue, Archpriest Igor Shaban informed that the Uniates did not take over the Annunciation temple in Kolomyia, but simply entered into the church since the door was open. It is said by the priest in his commentary to ”Obozrevatel”.

"Believers of the UOC MP and the UGCC took turns to pray at the walls of the church until one day they discovered that the church was open," Igor Shaban said. "The first to see this was the Greek Catholics, and just came inside the temple, which was regarded in the Moscow Patriarchate as the seizure of the temple."

The head of the Law Department of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, considers such an explanation ridiculous.

"As if they were walking and found a lost purse. Fancy for a moment that Orthodox believers in Kiev will one day see St. Nicholas church on Askold's Grave open and just go there to pray, and then they will not let anyone in there and will be asked to create a commission to justify this misunderstanding," wrote Archpriest Alexander Bakhov on his Facebook page. “By the way, the church of St. Nicholas on Askold's Grave used to be Orthodox, and now it is used by the religious community of the UGCC. But the disputed church in Kolomyia was built by the Orthodox, back at the time when there were no Greek Catholics. And it should be noted that to this day the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church legally owns the Annunciation church in Kolomyia."