In Odessa region official forces believers to transfer to UOC KP
The UOC religious community of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist and St. Nicholas in Nikolaevka, Odessa region, published an appeal to the Head of the State Administration Larissa Vysotskaya with a demand to stop pressure on believers to transfer to the Kyiv Patriarchate. The document is published on the website of the Baltic eparchy of the UOC.
The rector of the church, Protopriest Igor Vyverets, said that the official with her actions infringes on the rights of believers.
"I increasingly witness violations of the rights of believers in our village. At solemn events in the urban settlement of Nikolaevka, you can see the presence of only one religious organization – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. There are facts when you summoned to your office, and under the pressure of your position indicated which Church people should go to and how to pray," the clergyman writes.
The community members claim that before the appointment of the official to the post in Nikolaevka, various confessions peacefully coexisted for many years: "powers that be have come and gone, but there have never been such conflicts between the believers as now," the appeal says.
According to the rector of the church, the official violates the Constitution by her actions. He reports that if she does not stop pressure on believers, the community will have to turn to the higher authorities of state power.
The appeal caused a violent reaction in social media, up to threats, from the opponents of the UOC. "Well, it's not being pressed yet. That's when they are killed like mad dogs…," wrote one of the commentators of the publication.
