OCU and patriots cannot divide the temple seized from UOC in Bogorodchany

Holy Trinity church of the UOC in Bogorodchany village. Photos from open sources

On June 11, 2019, supporters of the OCU and dissatisfied local people gathered near the building of the Holy Trinity temple of the UOC, which was illegally seized from the UOC in February of this year in the village of Bogorodchany, Ivano-Frankovsk region, who were not able to agree on who the temple should now belong, reports Blitz-Info.

The village hardcore insists that the church should either be transferred to the UGCC community or left to the territorial community (which was originally done) in order to decide the future fate of the building at public hearings.

At the same time, the adherents of the OCU do not want to give up the grabbed premises, which were recently handed over to the “cleric” of the OCU, Theognost Bodoriak, by the recent decision of the district state administration.

On Tuesday, members of the OCU community, led by their “priest”, entered the church building. In response, the villagers called the police.

"In case of police inaction, we will contact directly the head of the National Police of Ukraine, Sergey Kniazev, and the Minister of the Interior, Arsen Avakov," residents of the village warned on the Facebook page of Bogorodchany village council.

Recall, on May 5, 2017, Bogorodchany Regional State Administration issued a decree on the refusal to prolong the contract for the use of the religious building (the Holy Trinity temple of the UOC) with the religious community of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the UOC in Bogorodchany village. The reasons for the refusal were not specified.

On the night of January 31 to February 1, 2019, unknown persons cracked locks on the doors of the Holy Trinity temple in vlg. Bogorodchany and since then parishioners of the UOC have lost the opportunity to pray in their own church.

On February 3, 2019, the religious community of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which since the 1990s has legally used the Holy Trinity temple in Bogorodchany, unanimously confirmed its faithfulness to the UOC. On the same day, in the local House of Culture, the organizing committee of the district administration held a meeting of the territorial community on the issue of the “voluntary transfer” of the church to the OCU.

On February 5, 2019, in the sealed church under the guise of inventory, they removed the seals and distrained the property of the UOC community. The law enforcement officers were near the church but they refused to give any comments not only to the parishioners, but also to the representatives of the OSCE.

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