I was told: if you want to live in peace, join OCU, - DECR head on searches

Metropolitan Meletiy (Egorenko). Photo: Foma in Ukraine

Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna at the sermon on the day of St. John Chrysostom told the details of the search, which took place in the eparchy on November 25, 2022.

"They came at 7 a.m., unexpectedly and spectacularly. They smashed all the doors in the eparchy as if someone did not want to let them in. They came with machine guns, shouting, shrieking, with glass everywhere, saying: 'Get up, hands up!'. I'm in my pyjamas, I don't even know what to do. They read me the order, warned me and started a search. They took away my phones and computer disks. They did not let my lawyer in, as if it were not a democratic free Ukraine, but some kind of North Korea," says the archbishop.

He also said that the SBU gave him "good advice" on how to avoid further such "visits".

"Privately, one of the kind masked men called me over and said: "If you want such a circus not to continue and you live peacefully in the future – shift to the OCU", after which he turned around and left," Metropolitan Meletiy recalled.

As earlier reported, on 25 November the SBU conducted a search in the Chernivtsi Eparchy.

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