Department for External Church Relations
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“OCU’ supporters’ attempt to seize a church in Vinnitsa region in Ukraine
On July 18, 2021, aggressive representatives of the “OCU” made an attempt to seize the church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in the Verbovets village, Vinnitsa region, Ukraine. The attack was preceded by unlawful actions of the head of the directorate for the affairs of ethnicities and religions of the Vinnitsa Regional Administration, I. A. Saletsky, who, in defiance of the decision made by the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on July 12, reregistered the parish as part of the “OCU”.
As the UOC Information-Education Department reports with reference to the Parish of the Nativity of the Mother of God’s Facebook page, the attempt of forcible capture was made by “OCU” local supporters and those who had nothing to do with the local community of Ukrainian Orthodox Church and had never come to this church.
“The priest and the faithful of the canonical Church were beaten up and pushed away from their own church in which they had served the Lord for years. The attackers tore off the cross from the priest. The OCU aggressive representatives carried sharpened armature and threatened “to cut parishioners as pigs”, the page reports. After these developments, the church was sealed until a court judgement.
The rector of the Church, Archpriest Alexander Luchin, has served at the Parish of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God for over twenty years, and it is through his efforts and those of the local faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that the churches has been renovated and a refectory has been built.
“Craftily, through a meeting of local residents rather than a meeting of the religious community, documents were filed for the re-registration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church community as part of the OCU, without the former asking for it. The faithful of the canonical Church did not want and do not want to change their jurisdiction”, the commentary reads further. It is noted in the publication that the actions of I. A. Saletsky, who used the minutes of a meeting of villagers rather than that of the religious community to re-register the community of the canonical Church as part of the “OCU” provoked a new wave of aggression among the supporters of this schismatic organization.
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