“We'll serve here on Trinity”: OCU again threatens UOC cathedral community
OCU raiders again attempted to seize St. Michael’s Cathedral of the UOC in Shepetivka, this time bringing documents with them.
On June 7, 2022, OCU supporters made another attempt to seize St. Michael’s Cathedral in the city of Shepetivka. Archimandrite Alexios (Matsola) told UOJ about the incident.
According to him, an hour after the Liturgy, OCU activists came to the church – about ten strong young men accompanied by a former police chief and local residents. “They were led by OCU ‘priest’ Vasyl Hetman together with his son, also an OCU ‘priest,’ and they had singers with them. Hetman said they had come ‘to pray,’” Fr. Alexiy said, adding that the OCU supporters brought with them a newly registered “charter” signed by the mayor. On the basis of this “charter,” the OCU activists demanded that the rector, Fr. Mykhailo, hand over the keys to the church.
Fr. Alexios said he tried to admonish the raiders and asked them: “Why do you not win people over with love? Serve in your own churches – there are several of them in Shepetivka – preach the word of God, and the parishioners, seeing how good you are, would come over to you themselves.” In response, the Hetman “priests” categorically demanded to be allowed into the church.
The parishioners of St. Michael’s Cathedral stood up in defense of the shrine and refused to hand over the keys. After that, the raiders left, threatening to return and declaring: “We will serve here on Trinity.” Dumenko’s supporters said they were going to the police to file a complaint against the clergy and parishioners of the cathedral for refusing to give up St. Michael’s church.
Fr. Alexios told UOJ that earlier that morning, before the arrival of the “guests” from the OCU, Shepetivka Mayor Vitaliy Buzyl had invited the rector, Fr. Mykhailo, for a conversation and promised that no unlawful actions would be taken against St. Michael’s Cathedral. At the same time, the rector brought the mayor numerous statements from parishioners demanding that the church and the community be left alone, as well as documents confirming the registration of the cathedral community and its property rights. However, as later became known, the mayor had already ordered that the Statute of St. Michael’s Cathedral of the UOC be deemed invalid.
Archimandrite Alexios (Matsola) also noted that churches seized by OCU raiders, for example in Chetyrboky or Sudylkiv, stand empty, with no services held even on patronal feasts, while rare services draw only 10–15 people.
The parishioners, who have been protecting St. Michael’s Cathedral in a prayer vigil for a month and taking turns spending the night inside, decided to intensify their prayers.
As a reminder, on May 7, at the initiative of Shepetivka Mayor Vitaliy Buzyl, OCU supporters first came to St. Michael’s Cathedral and demanded that it be transferred to the OCU, while city authorities began collecting signatures from public-sector employees in order to take the cathedral away from the UOC.
As the UOJ reported, the Shepetivka authorities introduced a “special regime” for the UOC.
