Not a single person comes to "liturgy" in the seized temple of Khmelnytsky

No one came to the occupied temple of the UOC in Khmelnytsky for the “service”. Photo: screenshot of the UOC YouTube channel

On May 7, 2023, not a single person came to the seized Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Khmelnytsky for the Sunday “liturgy” of the OCU, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC, which published a video of the “worship”.

The footage shows that the church is completely empty.

As reported by the UOJ, the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God of Khmelnytsky was seized on April 5, 2023 by the efforts of the local authorities. The organizers were the deputy of the Khmelnytsky City Council Vitaliy Podhaychuk and the head of the city department of culture and tourism Artem Romasiukov. At a meeting held the day before, the authorities “appointed” a deputy of the Khmelnytsky City Council (the team of Mayor Symchyshyn) Oleh Yanitsky as the head of the parish council. In the videos of Suspilne Khmelnytsky, the participants in the meeting on transition to the OCU admit to camera that they have nothing to do with the religious community of the temple.

On April 19, 2023, Serhiy Tiurin, deputy head of the Khmelnytsky RMA, by order No. 248, “renamed” the Church of the Kazan Mother of God into the Church of the Pochaiv Mother of God. Resources close to the OCU stated that "the old name of the temple contained the phrase ‘Kazan Icon of the Mother of God’, which is associated with the Russian city of Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan."

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