UOC community illegally re-registered in favor of the OCU in Kolybayivka

Archangel Michael Church in the village of Kolybayivka. Photo: Facebook page of Anatoly Dubynsky

The authorities of the Khmelnytsky region illegally re-registered the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Kolybayivka, Kamyanets-Podilsky district, in favor of the OCU. Archpriest Tarasy Kavulya, rector of the Archangel Michael Church, told the UOJ about this.

According to him, a local atheist, Vasyl Zakharenko, was appointed as the new head of the community.

The priest noted that back in June 2022, when the community held a meeting and decided to remain in the UOC; letters were sent to the Khmelnytsky Regional State Administration, in which the regional governor Serhiy Hamaliy was informed about the position of the parishioners and the rector.

At the same time, 2 months later, in August 2022, OCU supporters held their meeting in the village club. At the meeting, people who have nothing to do with the community and church life voted allegedly for the transfer of the temple to the OCU.

“On August 22, I filed a letter of appeal to the governor of the Khmelnytsky region explaining the situation and reminding that our parishioners stood their ground, recalled the results of our community’s vote, spoke briefly about how the meeting of the OCU was held, where it was held, with what violations,” Father Tarasy says. “<…> At the end of this cover letter, I noted that our community did not authorize anyone and did not delegate such authority to anyone to change the name of the religious community, change jurisdiction, change the leader.”

In turn, the regional department for religion sent the rector a reply to his letter. In this letter, the officials assured the believers that the opinion of the parishioners of the UOC would be heard and taken into account "in further actions, if any."

“It is clear that no one took into account anything, not even the fact that the governor read something. I have such a suspicion that he does not even reread these letters, but sends them to relevant departments. I think so,” said the priest.

The rector of the temple added that the illegal re-registration of the community was carried out on instructions from above, ignoring all the requests and demands of the parishioners of the UOC.

“Our people are tense. They know the intentions of their ‘counterparts’, what methods they use. They are afraid of physical collisions – at least breaking doors, cutting locks, perhaps even in the presence of the police. As is often the case in such situations, the police turn a blind eye and try in every possible way to prevent us from, as they say in such cases, ‘entering into conflict,’ i.e. from actually being able to protect our churches,” he said.

It is worth emphasizing that back in 2005, the Economic Court of the Khmelnytsky region recognized the right of ownership of the UOC community to the St. Michael's Church in the village of Kolybayivka.

As the UOJ reported, supporters of the OCU held a rally against the UOC near the Archangel Michael Church in Kolybayivka village, Khmelnytsky region.

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