OCU supporters seize two temples of canonical Church in Volyn Eparchy

St. Elijah’s Church, vlg. Klepachev

On Saturday, March 9, 2019, in the Volyn Eparchy, supporters of the OCU made a raider attack on St. Nicholas’ Church in the village of Skobelka, Gorokhov district, and the St. Elijah’s Church in the village of Klepachev, Kivertsi district, reports the press service of the Volyn Eparchy.

It should be noted that both of these parishes were illegally re-registered into the OCU, despite the decision of religious communities to remain in the bosom of the canonical Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

So, on January 20, in Skobelka, one and a half hundred people, who called themselves members of the village community, came to the temple courtyard of St. Nicholas’ Church of the UOC and demanded to hold a meeting to “transfer” the temple to the OCU. During the negotiations, which took place in the bell tower near the temple, supporters of the OCU were invited to use the provision of Law No. 4128, which envisages for the admissibility of the consecutive worship services in the event of a conflict in one or another parish. The OCU adherents refused to resolve the issue in a peaceful way and, after lengthy disputes, withdrew from the church, while members of the UOC community in the village of Skobelka once again unanimously voted for belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

Members of the territorial community of the village of Klepachev voted for the “transfer” of St. Elijah’s Church to the OCU at a meeting on February 17, 2019. On this day, after the service, the believers of the UOC walked in a cross procession to the school where the meeting was held, in which, according to preliminary agreements, only residents of the village should be present. Nevertheless, there were strangers, including representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate. Therefore, the members of the UOC religious community headed by the rector left the building, testifying their decision to remain under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

We recall, according to official statistics, today in Volyn only one community of Zhidychin out of 671 communities of the UOC transferred to the OCU and officially got registered with the Department of Culture for Religions and Nationalities of the Volyn Regional State Administration.

Earlier, Bishop Nathaniel of Volyn and Lutsk has reported that as of February 19, 2019, more than 20 of the 360 temples had been seized in the Volyn Eparchy.

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