Khmelnytsky authorities transfer UOC parish to OCU on false documents

Temple of the UOC in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos (Khmelnytsky). Photo: uk.wikipedia.org

The Khmelnytsky regional state administration, on the basis of falsified documents – the "minutes of the parish meeting" and the "statement" of the UOC community in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in Khmelnytsky city – re-registered this community in favor of the OCU. This was announced in a video message by the cleric of the parish, teacher of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, Archimandrite Paisiy (Kulish).

He said that since the beginning of April, OCU supporters have been trying to take possession of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, one of the oldest in the city. On April 5, they organized a political action near the temple, during which they collected 650 signatures for its transfer to the structure of Epiphany Dumenko. The church community then held a legal meeting, at which about 1,200 parishioners confirmed their allegiance to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

However, on May 8, Dumenkovites submitted documents to the RSA for re-registration of the parish in the OCU. The "decision" on this, according to them, was taken the day before at a "meeting of the religious community."

“There was no announcement, no video recording. We learned after the fact that on May 7 they allegedly held a second vote at the Podillya stadium in Khmelnytsky, said Archimandrite Paisiy. “But there was no meeting there that day. Furthermore, this is an unprecedented case in the entire history of independent Ukraine, when they try to transfer the temple to the structure of the OCU without holding a meeting. Fictitiously, they have already collected 2.5 thousand votes somewhere and submitted their minutes to the Khmelnytsky Regional State Administration.”

On May 14, about three thousand members of the community of the Nativity of the Virgin once again declared their unity with the UOC at a parish meeting in the church. In addition, the parishioners invalidated all the "decisions" of the fictitious "meeting" on May 7.

On May 15, the church community informed the Khmelnytsky Regional State Administration about the results of the legitimate meeting of the parish, but on the same day, it became known that the deputy head of the administration signed an order to re-register the parish with the OCU.

“We ask and warn the regional state administration not to commit such iniquity. We believe that those in power will reconsider their illegal decision,” said Archimandrite Paisiy.

As reported by the UOJ, Archbishop Victor of Khmelnytsky and Starokostiantyniv addressed a letter to the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Lubynets, in which he stated that it was inadmissible to re-register parishes of the Khmelnytsky diocese of the UOC in favor of another jurisdiction without the will of religious communities or contrary to such a will.

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