Department for External Church Relations
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A church of Ukrainian Orthodox Church captured with brute force in Khmelnitsky region in Ukraine
DECR Communication Service, 05.06.2023.
On June 2, 2023, in broad daylight, schismatics captured the St. Nicholas church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at Medzhibok, an urban village in the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine.
As the UOC Information-Education Department reports with reference to the press service of the Diocese of Khmelnitsky, the raiders group was led by Mikhail Blonskiy, a local businessman, and Alexander Chorniyevich, a deputy of the Khmelnitsky Regional Council. Without any legal cause, these people broke the church doors and changed the locks. The personal belongings of the parishioners were left in the captured church.
According to the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the representative of the authorities even afforded himself to snatch out a telephone from a woman parishioner who was video recording the crime. The deputy also used brute force in dealing with other members of the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Present on the spot was police but they did not react to the brigandish actions of the OCU activists.
It should be noted that in the beginning of the spring the religious community of the St. Nicholas church at Medzhibok held a general meeting of the parish, which adopted the decision to remain in the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the homophorion of His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine. This decision is recorded in the minutes of the parish meeting.
In view of the violations of the law, the rector and members of the lawful religious community of the St. Nicholas church in Medzhibok turned to the law-enforcement bodies with a request to defend their constitutional rights and put an end to the lawlessness of the ‘OCU’ supporters.
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