In Stara Zhadova, over a hundred UOC faithful celebrate house chapel feast
The church was seized from Orthodox Christians by OCU supporters two years ago.
On November 21, 2025, the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Stara Zhadova, Chernivtsi region, celebrated its patronal feast in a house chapel. The faithful of the Chernivtsi–Bukovyna Eparchy reported this on their Facebook page.
“Although the church remains closed, the parishioners are celebrating this solemn day for the second year in a row outside its walls – in a temporarily equipped space filled with homelike warmth, faith, and the strength of shared prayer,” wrote the Orthodox faithful of Bukovyna.
More than a hundred believers came to the service to share the joy of the feast and support one another in their fidelity to the Church, in prayer, and in the sacred heritage of their forebears.
Concelebrating with the parish rector, Mitred Archpriest Vasyl Hutsulyak, were clergy of the Chernivtsi–Bukovyna Eparchy.
“‘And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matt. 16:18). These words of the Savior are felt with particular clarity today – for where hearts remain faithful, there the Church of Christ always stands,” the faithful concluded.
The church was taken from Orthodox Christians on September 28, 2023. Supporters of the OCU, accompanied by a group of young men in balaclavas and in the presence of police, seized the building. While parishioners were blocked from entering their sacred space, the raiders broke down the doors and desecrated the church.
As the UOJ reported, earlier there had been several attempts to seize the Orthodox shrine. On the evening of May 27, 2023, an OCU “priest” tried to cut the locks from the church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel with an angle grinder, but parishioners intervened and prevented it.
