Supporters of the OCU disrupt worship and block the temple in Smila

On March 30, 2022, on the day of the patronal feast of the church of St. Alexy, a man of God, in the city of Smila, Cherkasy Eparchy, supporters of the OCU blocked the entrance to the temple, Archpriest Dimitry Litvinov reported on Facebook. The believers were not able to get into the temple, the festive service was eventually disrupted.

“Parishioners and guests – faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the priests invited to the feast – could not get into the temple – the entrance was blocked by representatives of the OCU of the city of Smila, who introduced themselves as an “initiative group,” the priest wrote. “After eight o’clock in the morning, the National Police and the Teroborona (Territorial Defense – Trans.) arrived at the temple watching the events around the temple, but did not interfere and did nothing to protect the legal rights of the UOC believers.”

“Also, representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine arrived at the temple, who looked at the legal documents confirming the right of the UOC community to the temple building and the land, were convinced of the legality of the community’s property rights, but also did nothing to establish law and order. Soon, the Smila mayor S. Ananko arrived at the temple, who talked with OCU supporters, who did not allow parishioners into their temple, and representatives of the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who came to pray on the occasion of their patronal feast. To the question of the embarrassed and frightened parishioners, whether they can calmly come to worship at their temple even on Sunday, the mayor of the city did not give an answer. He only said, ‘There are temples around, go there and pray.’ To the objection of the parishioners that these churches belong to the jurisdiction of the OCU, the head of the city replied that he did not see any difference between the UOC and the OCU.”

“At the same time, the mayor initiated the collection of signatures in favor of the schismatic OCU and against the UOC in the Grechkovka microdistrict, where the temple is located,| Fr Dimitry emphasized. “There were also negotiations between the parishioners and the initiative group. The result of the negotiations boiled down to one thing: ‘Go to the OCU, and then we are not interested in you.’ After that, an ‘initiative group’ of people who had nothing to do with the arrival of the church of St. Alexy, began collecting signatures on the transfer of the religious community of the Cherkasy diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU.”

Archpriest Dimitry Livtinov stressed that the signatures were collected not among the parishioners of this church, but perhaps even visitors who did not belong to members of the religious community.

“After considerable efforts and long negotiations, only the rector of the temple, priest Roman Garkavenko, finally managed to get into the temple in order to consume the Lamb prepared for the festive Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts,” wrote the UOC priest.

Recall that the first provocation with the participation of armed people occurred in the Smila church of the UOC during the Sunday liturgy.

As the UOJ wrote, the injured hieromonk Vasily (Miroshnichenko) spoke about the attack in this church.

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