Faith Protection

"Church raiding" in Western Ukraine: Analysis and Conclusions

16 July 2015 19:58

505

Author: News

To appeal to the rights of believers at a time when these rights are often ignored, putting on a well-chosen label is a difficult, thankless occupation. The author’s personal record includes cases of infringements of rights to religious belief, freedom of assembly and worship in a dozen parishes of the UOC, experiencing brutal raider attacks and spreading fakes in the media. This false news is reposted at a fan speed, but nobody cares much to disprove falsehood.

With apparent, though unofficial, data, and conclusions on "who benefits", we can already make initial findings on the situation in the regions of Western Ukraine regarding seizures of UOC churches. So, let’s turn to the facts.

In the regional centers of Western Ukraine, since early 90's there has been the following situation: after a wave of takeovers of large urban churches, a religious building may belong to the UOC by court order, but in fact, it is used by another public organization, which calls itself "the only national and Ukrainian church ". From this source comes distorted information about priests and parishioners of the UOC. After that it is gladly picked up by the media and somewhere local authorities, who have, as it turns out, rather serious levers to afflict fellow citizens - Orthodox communities and priests. The passivity of law enforcement officers, just watching this self-will, impresses greatly.

Since summer of 2014, a western strip of historically Orthodox land has become “the battle scene”, comparable by passion and deceit with a real church "hybrid war". So far, interconfessional conflicts have been minor fights for the churches and parishes within the neighborhood. Now "heavy artillery" has gone in a course. It is mainly focused on small rural communities. Frankly speaking, it looks like training and developing of technology.

As practice shows, when the village community is headed by a responsible person who is not easily influenced from outside and can hardly be manipulated, an attempt to take over a local Orthodox church fails, or at least done according to the law. For example, if a church, as one in Mylcha village, Dubno district, Rivne region, is an architectural monument and was not registered in time to any religious community-user, the "victory" is determined by the factor - "who is faster and smarter."

The situation around several dozens of Orthodox churches and villages in the west of the country, demonstrates that it is very difficult to fight off the church and restore the right to worship according canons in case of united efforts and coordinated actions of local authorities, the judicial branch and other parties interested in stirring up interconfessional conflict. Even after winning the court, an Orthodox community of the neighboring village Ptycha, Dubno district, wasn’t able to enter their own church immediately after the court decision, and was reported… to have invaded their own property.

However, we can state that at such an attractive for "church raiding" territory, no more than two dozen parishes of the UOC have been seized. Thus, the UOC still hold the status of a Ukrainian church and for the number of priests, monks, functional churches and communities it is still about three times larger than the most active "competitor" of the Church – the UPC, Kyiv Patriarchate. An attempt of dissenters to seize the village church in Kolosova, Kremenets district, Ternopil region, ended in an absolute “defeat” of new “applicants” for the UOC property. It became possible due to competent and unbreakable village community, which keeps all documents to the church building in full order. Obviously, knowing this, the opponents bothered in advance about small-town black PR against a local priest, a common village dweller- not even the senior priest of the church.

We can also take note that quasi-patriotic, insincere declamation and stories about love for neighbors are in deep contrast with what people see with their own eyes. The consequences of raids came out diminishing, but the reputation of the UOC-KP, which dared to violate human rights, is unlikely strengthened by such actions. However, illegally occupied rural churches are hardly the last step of church raiders unless the UOC, as the last institution that actually unites all Ukraine, draws appropriate conclusions.

Сonclusion № 1 An extensive ecclesiastical institution must learn how to manage and protect its property rights. Otherwise, the constitutional rights of believers will be violated in the future. It is desirable not only to claim property rights, but together with the community to keep their buildings in good condition not to give the opposite side quite a good reason to blame them for neglect of the property. However, even if all the documents on the use or ownership of the church, the priest's house and the land under these objects are kept right that nobody can fault them, it still does not guarantee against new raids. There have already been cases when by agreement of raiders and local authorities; a UOC community - the property owner – is removed from the registry through "rebranding" it into the UOC-KP. This technique was applied by church raiders in Bashuky village, Kremenets district.

With a camera rolling, the illegal owners of village churches say that everything remains as it is, but out of sight of police officers and lawyers they continue to act wrong against the villagers. It is difficult to comprehend the words "Come to us, everything will be as it used to be," followed by demands that the widow of the previous priest take away from the church land the burial of the man who has served the community for almost 40 years. There is a sharp contrast between the words about "love for the neighbor", said to a Kiyv channel by the UOC-KP priest of Uhryniv village, Gorokhiv district in Volyn, and his actions during the seizure of the church in Uhryniv when the family of the UOC priest, including children, was illegally evicted from the house, where they were registered, in favor of a new priest.

Conclusion № 2 The Ukrainian Orthodox Church must learn how to resist permanent distortion of their position on behalf of instigators of inter-confessional confrontation, using all legal and ethical methods to influence the situation.

It may be illustrated by the biased TV program when the forced registration of property and communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the annexed Crimea was presented by TSN to television viewers as treachery, while a similar situation for the Crimean representative of the UOC-KP proved to be ... a 'challenge for the Church-Martyr. "

If the Church does not want to go back a couple of centuries ago, so to speak, into the catacombs, it must stand up for its rights as a Ukrainian public organization and disprove any slander. What can disjoint farmers, who have never traveled outside their country, do when they are labeled by Ukrainian mass media as "alien agents"? Moreover, they are unprotected, if the only employment in the village is given by the local authority, who simply pays back to the Orthodox priest for refusal to join the UOC-KP? That is a "confessional conflict" and "transition by referendum" in the above mentioned Uhryniv village in Volyn, which is under a great influence of a former head of the collective farm-millionaire, and now a businessman and a member of the regional council.

In order not to follow the trend of the UOC-KP, whose spokespersons almost never make reference to real names, sometimes even make up nonexistent priests, we further quote Ukrainian believers.

Valentyna Kovalchuk, a teacher of the Ukrainian language, Uhryniv village, Volyn region:

- We have been taken away the church and labeled "separatists." We go to the priest’s house to worship but they also want to take it, the rest of the laity goes to other villages or to the regional center, for fear of losing their jobs. Here, to our father, they are not admitted.

Galyna Bondaruk, retired, a chorist of the Orthodox community, Uhryniv village, Volyn region:

- They are themselves agents of Moscow. We, together with the priest, are accused of praying for the Russian Patriarch, it is not true. I have been in the church choir since 1992; everybody almost from the beginning has been worshiping and singing in Ukrainian. We always pray for Ukraine, for the unity of churches, for peace, and for those who died in conflicts. We are labeled, families are split, people do not greet one another.

Tetiana Galashevska, a teacher of mathematics, Uhryniv village, Volyn region:

- If someone had said earlier that we’d be going though such events in the village, I would not have believed them, because I thought we had the best people. The initiator of the transition to the KP is not Uhryniv born, he is from Lviv, Greek Catholic, he has never gone to church, and went to Lutsk. Now he makes his subordinates, who have never participated in church life, go to church despite their wish. People are under direct pressure. I know that there have been attempts to bribe our priest for joining the KP. He has already opened a couple of KP churches in the district. Can he be under some contract?

{gallery}11-07-2015--201:320:220::{/gallery} An Orthodox family from Uhryniv: four generations

Maria Kovalchuk, artist, Uhryniv village, Volyn region:

- I love my village, I feel sorry to hear and see that the head of the village council and businessmen, who control everything here, abuse their power, spread a discord. The situation is really terrible. In fact, people who now run the race to the seized church, have never had understanding of church life and canons; they used to come only at Easter. Moreover, a business leader Turak has never allowed days-off on religious holidays. Now they’ve specially made a day-off, the impression is that he pays wages to those people who have nothing to do with the church before.

Galyna Sahaniuk, a resident of Mylcha village, Dubno district, Rivne region, a widow of the local church senior priest:

- I do not go to Moscow, why should I do that? They themselves go there to work and curse and label us. They now say that I must take the grave of my husband off the territory. We are lucky to receive a warm welcome at Pyriatyn church. We all have known each other for so many years, we have to be together, if not, then at least the low church must be returned.

Alla Ilchuk, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- The service is ministered in the private garage of the priest. The press has been discrediting us since September, inciting people to people, and now we have religious hatred. We are blamed for being faithful to Moscow and crying for Putin, which is not true. We want to live in the faith in which we were born. Here, human rights to worship as you want, but not as you are forced, are neglected. We are labeled “separatists”. Some call us “banderivtsi”(Bandera followers), others – “moscals”(pro-Russian). We are very patriotic and pray for our soldiers as we can, helping the army. Why not raise the question to build churches for the KP? We’ll support financially - it's not a problem. Families are set on to fight. At this difficult time we must unite because we are Ukrainians. And our priest has served for more than 40 years, no reprimands to him. Now he is going through hard times: he is being evicted from his house, which they threaten to burn; he is servicing in his garage, allowing it for the worship. We want to be protected and guaranteed against ill-will. The Church is separated from the state, but in our district local authorities, including the head of the village council, discriminate us at community meetings. The village is becoming terrible to live in, they want to send away the priest from the village. Who protects us?

Ivan Zhukov, an army volunteer, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- I returned home to see a newborn daughter, and here there is a discord. I went to church to worship God, and didn’t find it. I feel a little resented that people are divided. I support the Ukrainian church, but the situation is not clear, because people who were born here are not enemies. The Church does not support war - I know that. Something must be done to reconcile people.

{gallery}11-07-2015--202:320:220::{/gallery} A member of the UOC of Uhryniv village, who served in ATO, brought a child to the communion service

Maria Rykun, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- It's the KP that muddies the waters, they stir up the trouble. I have lived here all my life. This situation is to Russia’s advantage, because we have now split the community. On November 2, 2014 they made a survey (a kind of referendum) that no session approved. They take over churches, and this dissent is advantageous particularly for Russia. They either want to enrich themselves on the war, or they are agents. They fell behind at the referendum by 100 votes; they agitated and published pamphlets against us - who did that? We took them to court. Our community is a beneficial owner of the church. We have got all the documents on it and the land since 1996. But the KP followers cut lock and break into churches. Any other confessions build churches for themselves, and only that one does the church raiding. The UOC members haven’t had a place for worship for half a year. Village residents have split up. It’s wrong to seize churches; they should build their own to meet their needs. But the KP did the church raiding in the 90s and now they keep on making a complete breakdown of law and order. In court, they say that we have 10-15 people in the community against their 200. It looks as if they say: “Look, in fact, we are many!” But they took the majority in that votes due to people who are far from the church. The latter were told that we belong to the MP, and it played its decisive role. Actually, the followers of the UOC church are more numerous. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is completely separated in the legal field. Patriarch is really in Moscow, but this separation should be church approved, it should be settled at the Council, by force of law, but not by law of force, with curses. In case the Turks or the Poles arrive tomorrow, should I give up my faith? When we were under Poland, they built a catholic church, nobody invaded ours!

Raisa Melnychuk, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- My mother was detained for a month for taking us to church on a Holy Week. My grandfather was the first regent here, had a choir. As a detained prisoner, my mum built a booth at an intersection in Lutsk. When her father died, she wasn’t even allowed to the funeral, which made her hair grey. I was 10, I remember that. Kids were running in the church yard, and my mother kept me in the church. The next day the teacher took us to pieces in public for going to church. One teacher, who told against my mother, has already died. It still hurts to remember how they mocked at us, offering to sew dark monastic clothes for us. And we were actually expelled from the school and had to go to another one, in the nearby village, where people were more tolerant and didn’t prosecute us. I don’t want even remember that time. As I see them passing our house, I feel ill. Now they say they are Ptycha born, but are they really Ukrainians? They used to label us “banderivtsi” (Bandera followers), and now we are said to serve Moscow – so, what are we now? I have a neighbor, who refuses to greet me. But I won’t trample my mum’s bones because my mother told us to live in the faith in which she used to live. I’d better go to the garage for worship than follow those two with their children!

Nadia Bondar, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- Once in the 7th form, my son came to school in a blue shirt and beige trousers. His teacher sent him back home and said that he shouldn’t wear inappropriate dress any more. And now they are great patriots because they turned backward budyonivka on their heads (changed views). Then we did not understand what was wrong with the colours. Later we realized that the teacher made my child change his clothes. But now, as Ukraine has started, they turned hats! He does not talk to us! But my children greet him, for he taught them so. Then the priest was sent to us. Should we throw him away?

Iryna Horchuk, a resident of Ptycha village, Dubno district, Rivne region:

- Somebody broke the page "InConact" of my son’s classmate and wrote there "I am a Moscal, I’ll kill you!” The chairman of the parent committee meeting told the press about that incident on March 7. Shall we be ready to take our children from school? Another girl told a poem at the festival, in a nearby village museum, where there is a cafe-spring of Taras Shevchenko. A teacher came to her and said, "You recited the poem very well, but you are a “moscalka.” They distort facts, say that we label them, but it's not true, we have not touched them.

Maria Savchuk, a resident of Kolosova village, Kremenets district, Ternopil region:

- Our priest was slandered. He has never said what was written about him. The husband of Chervinska, who accused the priest of beating her, threatened me before the meeting that they sack me if we stand up for the UOC.

Galyna Horobets, a resident of Bashuky village, Kremenets district, Ternopil region:

- They threaten to throw Molotov cocktails at us. I‘m said to be brought to Pochaiv, to an animal burial site. They find us trash, the cattle and threaten to do pogrom at the house of a seminarian’s mother. What are they going to look for there?! The police are only passive onlookers; they may interfere only in case of a fight. My mother helped to build the church. I think all this trouble in Ukraine is because of those shape-shifters, werewolves, those teachers who once chased us round the church, and now put on sheep's clothing, it's all the same communists. Are Ukrainians capable of doing that? I was once deported to Siberia, but I won’t change. And I am ready to die for this church. Church language is Slavonic, and they find faults with us for servicing “in Russian”. They grabbed me by the lapels, but I will not go there.

Impressions of what was said and heard make us draw sad conclusions: as though in the lands of the present Western Ukraine, which used to be Orthodox long before the birth of the Grand Prince Vladimir the Baptist, Orthodoxy is being forced out. I would not like to believe in the version that it goes not only of simple church raiding and a threat of breaking believers’ rights, but of a likely scenario of working off real radical confrontation in Western Ukraine. It’s quite obvious that the weakening of almost the last all Ukrainian national institution – the Orthodox Church – is artificially induced, which leads to the weakening of the civil society. We may only assume what dreadful consequences this process can have. And instigators would rather think about it in time.

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