Department for External Church Relations
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UOC church seized in Pylypy village in Ukraine
DECR Communication Service, 17/07/2024
On 16th July 2024, in Pylypy village, Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine, representatives of the local authorities, acting together with the OCU activists, seized St. Nicholas Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“The unlawful church seizure was an audacious and coercive act. The front door was forced with police present,” Press Service of the UOC Khmelnytskyi Diocese reported. Among those who staged and carried out the raider attack were a deputy of the district council and the village headman.
The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Pylypy, consecrated in 1907, kept functioning even during the years of the atheistic persecutions, to be closed only from 1941 to 1942.
Despite the church seizure, the entire religious community headed by the parish rector, Archpriest Valentin Savchuk, maintains affiliation to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. The liturgical life in the parish continues. This Sunday, 21st July 2024, the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in new premises located near the seized church, adapted for that purpose.
As the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported, in May 2024 the OCU activists announced plans to seize churches in Krasyliv town and Pylypy village. However, at that time, the UOC religious community managed to defend their church.
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