OCU serves meat porridge to people on fasting day at seized UOC cathedral

On November 8, representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in Cherkasy, who had forcefully seized the St. Michael’s Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), attempted to gather people for the church feast day by the revised Julian calendar. According to the kozakTv1 Telegram channel, the event was intended to show widespread support for the takeover of the Orthodox shrine.

"According to our sources, the OCU canceled services in almost all of their churches across Cherkasy region and brought in most of their clergy for this event," the report said. "However, the spectacle failed. Even the free distribution of meat porridge on a fasting day next to the cathedral didn’t help."

The channel notes that on a regular Sunday, the vast, seized cathedral remains empty.

"Residents of Cherkasy do not visit the holy site, where hired OCU enforcers looted and injured Orthodox Christians," added the journalists.

As the UOJ previously reported, a UOC hierarch urged the faithful to pray for the return of the cathedral seized by the OCU.