Prosecutors seek to seize UOC church in Zalizniachka for state
In the Cherkasy Region, prosecutors have asked a court to transfer a historic UOC church in the village of Zalizniachka into state ownership.
The Zvenyhorodka District Prosecutor’s Office in the Cherkasy Region has filed a lawsuit seeking to transfer the historic St. Demetrius Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the village of Zalizniachka into state ownership, reports the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor's Office.
The prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit with the Cherkasy District Administrative Court, claiming an alleged threat of uncontrolled use and destruction of the wooden church built in 1773. To whom exactly the prosecutors plan to transfer the building is not disclosed. At the same time, neither the UOC parish nor the village council was warned of the legal claims – the faithful learned of the law enforcement officers' intentions from publications on the Internet.
The village council handed over the keys to the church to the priest and UOC parishioners back in the 1990s. At that time, due to the authorities' negligence, the shrine was in a semi-ruined state. Members of the community fully restored the church on their own and at their own expense, and have kept it in good order all these years. Now the prosecutor's office is demanding through the court that the church be handed over into state ownership.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that Ternopil prosecutors demanded that the Pochaiv Lavra be returned to the state.
