Community in the village of Kazak: Dear President, leave us our shrine

A freeze-frame from the video message of the parishioners of the village of Kazak. Photo: UOJ

On May 30, 2019, the UOJ published a video message from the parish community of the Holy Trinity Church of the UOC of the village of Kazak, Rovno region, to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

“Dear Mr. President, we ask you to stop the arbitrariness against our Church. The authorities, namely the Rovno regional administration arbitrarily makes changes to the Statute of our church and transfers it into the OCU. Our church is over 300 years old. All these years we have served in Church Slavonic and according to the canons of the Orthodox Church. It was built by 5 villages,” people appealed to the President.

They described how a group of OCU activists, with the support of the village head, held a meeting in the club of one of these 5 villages on March 3, 2019, at which 128 supporters of the new church structure voted for the “voluntary transfer” of the church in Kazak under the jurisdiction of this religious organization.

On this day, the real parish community held its meeting at the church, during which 170 people voted for the UOC, and each participant validated his choice with a signature, as believers of the canonical Church noted.

“We are the majority. Why is this not taken into account in the regional administration of the city of Rovno?” the video message participants asked the head of state.

People called on activists of the OCU to build themselves a new church and not to take away someone else's.

“Our community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Kazak of the Korets district, Rovno region, really hopes that you will stop this arbitrariness and desecration of the church. We voted for you and believe in you. May God take care of you for many years!” one of the UOC parishioners told the President of Ukraine.

The church is the only thing that the poor people have, and you shouldn’t swear at the elders who have gone to church for ages, the residents of the village of Kazak turned to the supporters of the OCU.

“We voted for you. And we ask, our whole community asks. Let us pray. We have one shrine in Kozak. We have nowhere else to address. Our grandparents, forefathers, our generation. We baptized our children here and married them. And we baptize with the whole community. Give us, leave us this shrine. I beg you from all people. I heartily ask,” another elderly parishioner of the canonical Church asked Zelensky.

In early March 2019, a meeting of the territorial community was held in Kozak, where, besides the Kazak population, residents of neighbouring villages were also brought. 128 people present voted for the transfer to the OCU. There were no believers at this meeting, but they held a legal meeting of the religious community in the church, where 176 people voted for remaining in the bosom of the canonical UOC led by its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

However, on April 12, 2019, the head of the Rovno Regional State Administration Alexei Muliarenko issued a resolution stating that in the village of Kazak the community of the UOC was liquidated; instead, the community of OCU is operating. Believers of the canonical Church were actually outlawed. Now parishioners of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Kazak are constantly threatened with the seizure of their church.

The UOJ editorial board reminds: in case of violation of the rights of the episcopate, clergy, laity, and institutions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (obstruction of worship, seizure of churches, commission of provocations and pressure, threats, etc.), one should immediately contact the Legal Department of the UOC by phone: 097- 537-55-96.

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