In vlg. Urvenna of Rivne region Filaret followers attempt to provoke conflict

On December 1, 2017, it became known that Kyiv Patriarchate members from the villages of Gilcha and Urvenna began collecting signatures for the transfer of the UOC community of the St. Kazan parish under the jurisdiction of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

"Supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate began their activities in the village of Urvenna with deceit," says Protopriest Andrei Ostapiuk, rector of St. Kazan's Church. "During the collection of signatures, the local residents were deceived, said that this is happening with my blessing and that I will leave the fold of the canonical Church, too, if most members of the religious community want it."

Since similar situations had occurred earlier in the territory of the Rivne region, the UOC community of the village of Urvenna, foreseeing the further development of the scenario, decided to react to the actions of the representatives of the UOC-KP and went rounf the village, too, to collect signatures. At the moment, 228 signatures have been collected for the preservation of the current jurisdiction and affiliation with the UOC, including of the people who were deceived by supporters of the UOC-KP.

So far, the community of the UOC-KP has not been registered in the village of Urvenna.

"To avoid further misunderstanding, I want to draw public attention to the clause enstablished in the Ukrainian legislation," commented Protopriest Victor Zemlianoy, head of the Department for the Settlement of Interfaith Conflicts at the Rivne eparchy of the UOC. "So, according to the current legislation, the newly created religious communities should be registered at a different address, and not at the address of the existing communities of a particular denomination. In order not to follow the difficult path of judicial red tape, the initiators of such deals should be aware of responsibility.

The Rivne eparchy of the UOC has a bitter experience of interfaith confrontation in other parishes. Therefore, it has sent several written appeals to the Rivne region authorities with a request to hold explanatory talks with supporters of the UOC-KP and take appropriate measures to preserve the interfaith peace in the village of Urvenna.

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