When the persecution of the Church reached the level of commissars
The struggle between the UOC believers and the state, as well as the UOC and the OCU, is taking on increasingly absurd forms.
Usually, the OCU brings in at least some people to present them as "members of a religious community", even if they are openly criminals who break the jaws, arms, and legs of UOC parishioners (as was the case during the seizures of the St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery in Cherkasy).
But today, in Cherkasy, the situation is truly surreal. The police simply expelled the parishioners of St. Andrew’s Church from their shrine and locked the gates. There are no signs of any alternative "religious community" of the OCU whatsoever.
The UOC parishioners were expelled simply so that they wouldn’t be in the church. And this is despite the fact that St. Andrew’s Church is the property of the Cherkasy Eparchy. Legally, there can be no "transition" to the OCU there at all.
One day, historians will look at these pics, scratch their heads, and ask – how was this even possible? How could believers be expelled from their church in an Orthodox democratic country like this? And some not-so-thorough history students may confuse these photos with footage of Bolshevik persecution.
Though, perhaps they won’t. "Soviet" footage was black-and-white, while "Ukrainian" footage is in color. That’s the only difference.
