Appeal of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ugrinov

Appeal of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross community
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
vil.Ugrinov, Gorokhov district, Volyn region

We are seeking the support of our constitutional rights – the right of believers to practise their religion, to defend their religious beliefs and the right of a religious community as a legal entity on an equal basis with others to carry out its activities and enjoy its possessions.

The Orthodox community was restored in Ugrinov on July 3, 1989, by aspiration of the villagers, our parents and us, to practice the faith in which we were born. Until that time, the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Ugrinov was closed, although it survived and was in need of restoration.

In the beginning, according to the Soviet law, we existed as a religious community, which had no legal status and could not own the property. After the adoption of the Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", already in December 24, 1991, we were re-registered as a legal entity with the status of the UOC community as the successor of the local ROC religious society. The community did not change its church eparchial subordination.

In order to enjoy a full parish life, we built a house for a priest and his family. The land for the construction was allocated by the village council. Until 1998 the UOC clerics had been accommodated there, and since then archpriest Rostislav Sapozhnik, our Father superior, and his family have been living in it.

Besides this house, in the church territory there is another church building, suitable for use, which is empty. Its status is unknown.

In the village cemetery, remote from Ugrinov village, on our own resources another church-chapel was erected, which according to the decision of the Ugrinov village council of 2016 will serve as a funeral home. Although a cemetery chapel is not considered to be a full-fledged place of worship, the church was consecrated by our Father superior and, if necessary, can also be used as a religious place of prayer and worship.

Consequently, in the village there are four public or church properties, but our community has limited access to all of them.

In fact, as a result of prolonged artificial inter-faith conflict, our position in the village, contrary to the Law of Ukraine, is close to the Soviet practice, when the religious community is not allowed to possession and use of any property.

In the summer of 2014, on the initiative of a local businessman, deputy of the Volyn Regional Council Andrei Turak, our community was divided into those who want to transfer to the Kiev Patriarchate and those who keep their faith. On September 10, 2014, our Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was seized, we were pushed back from the door and some of the women were beaten until they lost consciousness. For this, as well as for beating of our father superior in March, 2015, nobody was accountable. The UOC-KP community was registered in the village in November 2015. However, it declared itself the owner and manager of all church property.

• The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is seized by them and has become an object of illegal and inconsistent "architectural" changes; we cannot influence it, though we have complained to the relevant authorities and still have a protection contract with the District Department of Culture, which is in force and not terminated by the second party.

• The house in the church territory is closed; we are not allowed into it; private belongings of the Father superior left there are declared "the church" and used by a priest of the Kiev Patriarchate.

• The church-chapel in the cemetery is administered by the Ugrinov village council, transferring it for our use is not on the agenda.

• Our last hope, a place for our worship - the house, in which our Father superior, his wife and children have been registered and resided, was privatized last year by the community of the UOC-KP in the way we couldn’t understand, with law violations. We are required to stop praying in it, and the Father superior and his wife by the court decision are moved out from the children.

In the spring of 2016, our community requested the chairman of the Ugrinov village council to allocate land for the construction of our new church in the territory of the village council. By a decision of 9 June, 2016, the village council rejected our request. The session was attended by 9 deputies out of 12. Three of those present (including the priest of the Kiev Patriarchate) voted against, six abstained in the vote, which further indicated that people in the village are still under pressure.

According to Art. 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", every citizen in Ukraine is guaranteed the right to the freedom of conscience. This right includes freedom to have, adopt and change one's religion or beliefs at one’s discretion as well as freedom to worship any or no religion individually or jointly with others, to celebrate religious worship, to openly express and freely disseminate their religious or atheistic beliefs.

For this reason, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appeals to you to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of our religious organization, to promote the establishment of relations of mutual religious and ideological tolerance and respect among citizens who worship any or no religion, among believers of different faiths and religious organizations, in accordance with Art. 5 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations."

Today Divine services are conducted in one of Ugrinov’s houses. Although it is required by Art. 21 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", which indicates that "services, religious rites, ceremonies and processions shall be conducted without hindrance in religious buildings and adjacent territory, in places of pilgrimage, in religious institutions, at cemeteries, in places of individual graves and crematoria, apartments and houses of citizens", but this house is not adjusted to host a large number of people and cannot always fit everyone wishing to take part in the Divine service. In addition, the conditions of worship in the house cannot be compared with a solemn prayer in a specially equipped place of worship.

We have a court decision in which it found that the specified house, privatized by the Kiev Patriarchate, was built by the UOC community. In addition, after a series of trials it was found that even though our community does not have the necessary papers for the use of our main church, the UOC-KP community is not a legitimate user of the building either. Therefore, only at the request of local authorities and businesses we were distanced from the church property, which was actually withheld by the UOC-KP.

Where is our share of the property? After all, the community now divided jointly built churches and church premises. We have the right to use this property, but we are proclaimed "thieves" who "illegally reside and conduct service" in the house, which the Kiev Patriarchate declared its own.

For clarity, we provide a list of documents which allow the Kiev Patriarchate to register their property rights to the house and the land under it. The head of the District Land Administration personally measured the land plot on May 23, 2015, despite an official day off.

• 17.11.2014, the session of the Ugrinov village council adopted decision № 41/3, which permits the religious community of the UOC-KP to develop a land management project for land allocation at 25 Naberezhnaya Str., vil. Ugrinov25 (the land plot where the rectory is located). The community appealed against the decision as illegal. The violation by the village council is that in accordance with the decision of Executive Committee of Ugrinov Village Council № 2 March 12, 1991, this land plot was already allocated for the construction of a single-family residential house to the church community, that is, the UOC community. The court refused to satisfy the claim because the decision of the Executive Committee was missing in the archive. Therefore, the Court concluded that such a decision did not exist. (Case №155 / 2499/14-a) The case has been under appeal proceedings for more than a year.

• 14.05.2015, the community of the UOC-KP orders the issuance of a technical passport to the address of the rectory (where at that time the Father superior of the UOC community resided). Lutsk BTI issued the technical passport without conducting technical inventory. As a result, the technical passport contains a number of inaccuracies (as actually it is faked).

• 09.07.2015, the Turka village council and the community of the UOC-KP (supposedly) signed an agreement to lease the land. The text of the agreement is not true for parties to an agreement (the name of the tenant not specified); the tenant of the agreement not specified in Annex 1, resulting in the nullity of the lease agreement (not complied with the requirements of Part 2 Art.203 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).

• Based on the above agreement the UOC-KP community registered the property right (right of use) to the specified land (the State Registrar – Voloshina).

• 05.08.2015, the UOC-KP community filed in the Volyn State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (SACI) declarations on readiness of the immovable property for use, using the above mentioned lease agreement and a fake technical passport with a note on the technical inspection without carrying out the inspection, and specifying itself as a builder (customer for construction), which does not comply with the requirements of para. 49 of the Procedure of state registration of real rights to immovable property and their burdens approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on October 17, 2013 № 868.

• Based on the registered declaration the UOC-KP community registers the ownership of the rectory (the State Registrar – Lunio). For registration of property rights the following documents were provided, in particular: the above-mentioned declaration; a lease agreement; a statement which indicates that the application is submitted by a natural person (the UOC-KP community is a legal person); instead of the name of the natural person, the name of the KP community is specified; the wrong USREOU code; the name and address of the authorized person submitting the application on behalf of a legal entity not specified, who signed a statement is not specified (definitely not Father superior N.F. Seget), an administrative fee paid in the amount prescribed for natural persons (85.26 UAH). Grounds for refusal of registration: Para 3, Part 1, Art. 24 of the Law of Ukraine "On state registration of real rights to immovable property and their burdens."

• The UOC community appealed the declaration and the decision on registration of property rights. The lawsuit is denied (case №803 / 3883/15). The Court stated that the SACI officials are not authorized to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the declaration. The violations when filing an application for registration of ownership were generally ignored. The Court just noted that the error in the code of the legal person is a "technical inaccuracy". The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, further pointing to the absence of the applicant's right to appeal to the Administrative Court. The opening of the appeal proceedings is denied.

• When filing a claim for eviction from the house assigned, the representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate added to it an extract from the Real Estate Register, according to which we supposedly own several properties in the three regions of Ukraine. The Court received the refutation of this false technical information from the relevant authorities for all objects. At the same time there is a reason to believe that the representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate illegally extracted Natalia Sapozhnik’s passport details to enter them into the searchable database of real estate registry.

We hope for your understanding and support in the implementation of our legal rights and freedoms.