Lawyer: OCU illegally deprives UOC community of right to church in Uspenka

The Holy Dormition Church of the UOC in the village of Uspenka. Photo: alexandria-eparhia.org.ua

The Holy Dormition community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Uspenka, Kirovograd region, was unlawfully deprived of the status of a legal entity with the participation of officials, its property seized, said Father Valery, a lawyer of the Alexandria Eparchy of the UOC, in his commentary to the UOJ.

He recalled that in 2019 two meetings on the canonical affiliation of the Holy Dormition parish of the UOC were held in the village. The first was illegal, in which the territorial community under the leadership of A.M. Shkil and A.I. Yakovenko voted for the transfer to the OCU, the second – of the religious community of the UOC, where it was decided to “remain faithful as part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in unity and under the leadership of its Primate – His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine and the head of the Alexandria Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Bishop Bogolep of Alexandria and Svetlovodsk".

The Kirovograd Regional State Administration ignored the decision of the full members of the Holy Dormition community of the UOC and without due verification of the reliability of the protocols and the powers of the applicant, A.M. Shkil, re-registered the religious organization, which resulted in the loss of the status of a legal entity.

Shkil, the new head of the illegally re-registered organization, filed a lawsuit with the Economic Court of the Kirovograd region, indicating in it false information, to recognize the ownership of the church belonging to the UOC to the OCU community.

The trial on this case has not yet taken place, but already on February 22, 2021, the religious organization of the OCU was listed in the State Register of Real Property Rights to Real Estate as the owner of a religious building.

“Such changes were illegally carried out by the state registrar V.V. Repyakh,” said the lawyer. “The basis for making changes is the certificate of ownership, the original of which is in the possession of I. I. Onisko (the rector of the church – Ed.), and he did not provide a copy to anyone.”

On March 13, 2021, the OCU community performed a "thanksgiving prayer" in the seized Holy Dormition Church, which was previously sealed till the court ruling on the essence of the conflict over property rights. Believers of the UOC in Uspenka are praying for those who seized their church. 

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