In Irpin, officials and deputies led by the mayor convert UOC temple to OCU

Meeting of church raiders in the Irpin City Council. Photo: Facebook group “Irpin Daily/Irpen”

On October 25, 2023, a meeting of supporters of the OCU took place in the premises of Irpin City Council. The participants voted in favor of the "transition" of the Trinity parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the organization led by Dumenko. This is reported by the UOJ correspondent.

The meeting included the Mayor of the city, Oleksandr Markushyn, his deputies, heads of structural units and ordinary employees of the City Council, deputies, directors and employees of communal enterprises, as well as a group of "priests" from the OCU.

According to the head of the "Holos" faction in the Irpin City Council, Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska, the participants of the meeting "appointed" a new "priest" of the church, cleric of the OCU, Oleksandr Dombrovsky.

Only those who registered with a signature in favor of the "transition" were allowed into the assembly hall, so the actual parishioners and the rector of the Trinity Church were unable to attend the meeting.

The entrance to the hall was guarded by local territorial defense fighters and police.

In a comment to the UOJ, the rector of the parish, Father Gleb Vovchenko, stated that before the event in the City Council, the believers held a parish meeting in the church, where they repeatedly reaffirmed their loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Trinity Church of the UOC, located in the center of Irpin, is the oldest in the city, built in 1915.

In July 2022, the Mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn, held a meeting in the village of Mykhaylivka-Rubezhivka of the Irpin territorial community, where a group of villagers voted in favor of transferring the St. Michael Church of the UOC to the OCU. The opinions of UOC believers who came to the meeting with a cross procession were ignored.

On December 13, 2022, the territorial defense, under the leadership Oleksandr Markushin and a "priest" of the OCU, seized the church in Mykhaylivka-Rubezhivka.

In April 2023, the Irpin City Council sent an appeal to the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the National Security and Defense Council calling for a ban on the UOC.

Additionally, the UOJ reported that Anton Holovenko, a City Council deputy from the "Novi Oblychchya" party, and a party colleague of Markushyn, is initiating the transfer of the St. George Church of the UOC located in the Romanivka neighborhood to the OCU.

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