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Department for External Church Relations
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Under the pressure of schismatics, the authorities have given them approval to capture a church in Volyn
Under the schismatics’ pressure and threats, the registration of the statute by officials of the regional state administration (RSA) did take place. It gives the ‘OCU’ representatives an opportunity for claiming the church belonging to the canonical Church and a warrant for overtaking by raiding. This is what Archpriest Sergiy Guz, dean of the Vladimir-Volynsky district of the diocese of Vladimir Volynsky, told the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s department of information and education, noting that these developments ‘have become a telltale evidence showing that through the unlawful actions of the ‘OCU’ representatives, the church sphere has been permeated by the bolshevist godless principle ‘take away and rule’ which has been actively realized in it.
The so-called ‘OCU’ supporters had sought to meet with the RSA chairman Yury Pogulyajko as they were displeased with his reluctance to register the statute of their community, which was prescribed and signed by the RSA first vice-chairman Sergey Movenko in the governor’s absence’. Father Sergiy says.
He indicated that ‘the valid statute in force, that is, the statute not cancelled by anybody, as well as all the documents for the legal right to own the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the church’s land are still held by the rector of the Church, Archpriest Yury Tatynchak, that is, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s religious community at the Galinovka village, who have humbly prayed at the walls of their own church locked by the authorities until their legal right to possess it is ascertained’.
The priest recalled that in October 2020 the ‘OCU’ representatives attempted to announce craftily through an advertisement in Volyn newspaper that the old statute had been lost. ‘It would have given them a green light for working out a new statute. But the deceit was uncovered since the statute of the religious community of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh has not disappeared anywhere. ‘The Volyn editors had to publish a disclaimer’, the dean said, ‘Where has a new statute of the ‘OCU’ Galinovka community come from, the registration of which has been so insistently demanded by its representatives during their recent visit to the Volyn RSA?’
‘People, including those who claim to be Orthodox Christian believers, have embarked on a blunt path of lies. They can walk a long way on it but would it be possible for them to retrace their steps?’ Archpriest Sergey Guz asked commenting the developments.
The rector of the church of St. Sergius at the Galinovka village, Archpriest Yury Tatunchak, stated that the forced re-registration of the parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in favor of the ‘OCU’ will not force the religious community of the canonical Church to stop its work; now the rector together with the parishioners will decide where to continue worshipping, reports the website of the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
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