UOC believers in Sutkovtsy defend their temple against OCU activists
The OCU activists persevere in their attempts to grab the UOC temple in Sutkovtsy. Believers do not let them in and continue to stand. The situation is tense.
According to the rector of the Holy Protection Church of the UOC in Sutkovtsy, Archpriest Vladimir Stepanishin, since the fortress-church is a monument of architecture, it is planned to allocate funding for its restoration, due to which the OCU supporters have additional motivation to grab it as soon as possible.
The reason for the seizure attempt was the rumor spread by the activists that the rector supposedly wanted to take possession of the church. The raiders planned to use it as an excuse to penetrate the temple. They have already drawn up the registration documents of their community and come to grab the temple of the UOC.
Prayer standing near the temple has lasted since yesterday’s 12 pm. At first about 10 activists came to the church, who wanted to pick up the locks and get inside without waiting for a court decision.
However, the believers surrounded the temple and prevented this takeover. The police approached the church together with a representative of the SBU.
Later, supporters of the OCU called for the help of other villagers, who expressed their support for the transition to another confession at a meeting of the territorial community. Nikolai Kovalyk, a "priest" of the OCU arrived from the district center, town Yarmolintsy, accompanied by several representatives of right-wing radical organizations.
The head of the village council supports the faithful of the UOC, which is the majority in the village.
Let's remind that in Khmelnitsky RSA, the statute of the OCU community was registered on the basis of the "statement of the UOC community" in the village of Sutkovtsy, who had voted for the loyalty to the UOC.
In the decree of the RSA on the establishment of the religious community of the OPU, it is stated that its charter "in a new wording" is registered in accordance with the statement of the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Holy Protection Sutkovtsy village, Yarmolintsy district, and the protocol of the community assembly.
According to the rector of the UOC community, more than 300 villagers, most of the community believers, voted for the support of the UOC at the religious community's meeting. Real supporters of the OCU in the village, according to Fr. Vladimir, is about 60 people.
As reported by the UOJ, earlier "hierarch" of the new church structure, Antony Mahota, spread information on the transition of the Holy Protection Church of the UOC in the village of Sutkovtsy, Khmelnytsky region, to the jurisdiction of the OCU, which did not correspond to reality.
