Sudobychi: two-year inter-faith conflict

In fact, the situation established in recent years in the village of Sudobychi, Dubno district, Rivne region, is simply absurd. However, the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who at least once have faced the supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate, unanimously assert that it is not surprising because those who supposedly want to worship in Filaret’s church God’s laws do not apply to. Bible precepts are negated, while aggression, anger, hatred and lie prevail. To cut off any allegations, a UOJ correspondent visited the conflict village and tried to figure out why the religious community of the UOC is ignored at any state level, pursued by the villagers and the police.

Interfaith disagreement began in Sudobychi on September 11, 2014, when the newly formed community of the Kiev Patriarchate seized a church of the UOC. We would like to draw special attention of the reader to the background of raider attacks. So, that day a young rector, Fr. Alexander Kardash, celebrated his birthday. In the morning he received congratulations from many people, including those who already in the afternoon came to the church with a new rector of the Kiev Patriarchate. Immediately after the service Father Alexander went home located 45 km from the village. He was completely unaware of a meeting to be urgently convened in the village, though before his leaving the priest talked with the village chief Galina Kursik, who, as it turned out later, was the main initiator of the pseudo-referendum.

– At home, I had hardly stayed a few minutes when I was alerted by a phone call from Galina Kursik. She said that there was a meeting of the villagers, and the community voted for the transfer of the church to the Kiev Patriarchate. She also told me to come, because she had the keys and was going to open the church, – Fr. Alexander Kardash remembers the events of September 11, 2014.

– The village has the population of 320 people. The meeting that day was attended by only 60 parishioners, a lot of visitors and 17 clerics of the Kiev Patriarchate, – says Anna Baraniuk.

Villagers remember that the church in Sudobychi was taken over without fights and clashes – the village chief opened the church doors and let the raiders in. Father Alexander, who returned back to the village, only asked to collect his belongings and Antimins.

By winning, the Kiev Patriarchate supporters began an aggressive attack on the villagers who refused to go to the church and supported Fr. Alexander Kardash, coming for the first service to the house of a local parishioner kindly provided for religious needs. It may sound pathetic and fancy but an old icon of the Virgin, before which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church believers were praying that day, began to renew and brighten right in front of the parishioners.

Later the Liturgy was also attended by those who first were wary of conviction and intimidation. Moreover, until September 11, 2014, the Sudobychi church was the only church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the five surrounding villages, so the Liturgy was attended by people from neighboring villages. When there was a raider seizure, the UOC believers started beating a path to the house, temporarily adjusted for worship. Having united a numerous community, Fr. Alexander organized a Sunday school for children, trips, excursions, etc. Troublesome work required permanent residence of the priest in the parish, but the main problem was housing. Then one of the locals, Alexander Marchuk, offered his land to build a house for the priest. The Sudobychi religious community of the UOC supported the idea, bought the land and registered the necessary documents. After completing the formalities for land privatization Fr.Alexander requested the regional energy officials to supply electricity in order to begin construction, but as it turned out, they could not do it, because the land plot required the address. Actually, it was a trigger factor for a new phase of inter-faith conflict in Sudobychi.

The Ploskaya village council, which governs Sudobychi village and is headed by the chairman Oleg Kuchubei, refused Archpriest Alexander Kardash in assigning the mailing address to his land plot and initiated another gathering of the villagers, to which even the Dubno district authorities were invited. This time UOC believers could not ignore the village meeting and also came to the club, where a numerous community had already gathered.

– We were greeted by the phrase "Glory to Ukraine!" to which we replied "Glory to Heroes." When the priest said "Glory to God!" all kept mum. So what does it turn out: to people who took away our church, state slogans are in the first place??? But what about God to whom they are going to pray? – says UOC parishioner Anna Petruchok.

The question of assigning the mailing addresses was debated the longest. During the discussion, many present were shouting and insulting the believers of the UOC. When it was time to announce the decision, it was as absurd as the meeting itself, and the reason for it, says Anna Baraniuk:

– It was decided to drive our Father out of the village, to take the disputed land plot away and even punish the villager who allocated it. And, of course, the mailing address was denied. All this performance was watched by the chairman of the Dubno State Administration Yuriy Parfeniuk and the chairman of the Dubno district council Alexander Kozak.

The UOC believers of Sudobychi decided to seek justice in court and filed a lawsuit. On October 13, 2016, the case hearing was held, which ruled to conduct a second hearing on 29 December 2016.

– More than a dozen representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate arrived at the hearings. They behaved in an aggressive manner, were swearing and even threatening, in particular, Mr. Misiuk, a Sudobychi resident, shouting that he would raise pitchforks against the UOC faithful if the court assigned the mailing address to the land plot of Fr. Alexander Kardash, – comments a human rights activist of the Rivne eparchy.

The interchurch conflict, which has continued in Sudobychi for two years, is intensified. Recently a police officer has visited several parishioners of the UOC to extract confessions that Fr. Alexander Kardash is distributing separatist literature. The villagers, of course, refused to blackwash the priest. The police also summoned for questioning the priest, but the offense reported by the KP supporters was not found. However, a few days later the same activists posted a publication in the local newspaper with fabrications and speculations about the separatist activity of the UOC priests.

Any story or article should be resumed but I will not do it so that everyone who reads these lines without the author's assessment could see the absurdity of the situation whose hostages became ordinary believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.