UOC cleric shares details of attempted takeover of Odesa’s Trinity Cathedral
Father Maksimian Pogorelovsky, a cleric of the UOC’s Odesa Eparchy, has revealed details of an attempted raider takeover of Trinity Cathedral in Odesa. He described the alleged scheme in a video address posted on social media.
According to the priest, OCU raiders brought a group of managers from the Odesa construction company Gefest into the scheme. The managers were presented as a “religious community” and a vote was held among them that, on paper, resulted in the parish’s “transfer to the OCU.”
However, when representatives of the UOC’s Odesa Eparchy contacted the managers themselves, they learned that the group believed they had voted to establish a charitable organization, not to transfer the parish to another church structure. Father Maksimian also stressed that anyone wishing to join a religious community must submit an application to the parish assembly – something that had not been done in this case. According to the priest, the Church is now challenging the alleged falsification of the documents in court.
As the UOJ reported, a court has suspended the re-registration of the UOC’s Trinity Cathedral in Odesa.
