OCU "hierarch" accuses another of raiding churches

Former UAOC and Kyiv Patriarchate hierarchs are fighting over churches in the Kharkiv region.

OCU “Archbishop” Afanasii Shkurupii has accused fellow OCU “Archbishop” Mitrofan Butynskyi of attempting to seize parishes in the Kharkiv deanery.

“Friends, pray! Today, on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, before the Holy Cross itself, the devil has stirred up chaos in the parishes of Sokolove and Tsyrkuny in the Kharkiv region. Through their rectors, Fr. Stanislav Ashtrafian and Fr. Oleh Kozub, whom I have temporarily removed from their positions, a rebellion is underway to transfer these parishes to another eparchy,” Afanasii Shkurupii wrote on his Facebook page.

Shkurupii, a former “hierarch” of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), now heads the OCU’s Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy.

According to him, the “raiders” had gathered outsiders who “only come to church to have their Easter bread blessed” and were preparing to “commit an act of Judas-like betrayal.”

He added that the entire operation was being directed by “an experienced director, Bishop Mitrofan” Butynskyi, who had been a “hierarch” of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP) before the OCU was established.

Shkurupii also claimed that threats had been made to target other parishes of the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy in an effort to drive Archbishop Afanasii out of the Kharkiv region.

“So this is what we're dealing with here. It is painful and upsetting that this is how the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is beginning. Well, we got exactly what we fought for!” the OCU “hierarch” remarked.

In the comments beneath his post, Shkurupii had to explain who was attempting to seize what, why the dispute had arisen, and which religious jurisdiction Mitrofan Butynskyi belonged to.

“He headed the Kharkiv Eparchy of the UOC KP, while I headed the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy of the UAOC. Since December 2018, we have both been part of the OCU. Incidentally, the OCU charter prohibits such transfers. Except... But it's not Mitrofan I'm upset about – it's the priests. He is under criminal investigation, yet he continues to serve because, at one point, he obtained written permission to do so from Metropolitan Makarii behind my back. All I can do is throw up my hands...” Shkurupii wrote.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that an OCU “bishop” in Rivne was attempting to evict a UAOC community from its church, calling the community a sect.