In Medzhybizh, OCU with the authorities seize St. Nicholas Church of UOC

The seizure was led by Khmelnytskyi district councillor A. Chernievych. Photo: a screenshot of the Khmelnytskyi Eparchy's Telegram channel

On June 2, 2023, a group of individuals led by the Khmelnytskyi District Council deputy A. Chernievych and businessman Mykhailo Blonsky seized St. Nicholas’s Church of the UOC in Medzhybizh, Khmelnytskyi region,” reports the Telegram channel of the press service of the Khmelnytskyi eparchy of the UOC.

The raiders cut off the locks from the temple and hung up their own. Personal belongings of the UOC community members were left in the church.

The press service of the eparchy reminded that at the end of March 2023, the religious community of St. Nicholas’s Church "held a general parish meeting (the general meeting of the faithful citizens) where they decided to remain in the canonical subordination and structure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. This decision is recorded in the minutes of the general parish meeting.”

The report says that the rector and community members of St. Nicholas’s Church "appeal to the National Police to protect their rights, to stop the arbitrariness on religious grounds, and to restore and ensure the rule of law”.

As reported, Chernievych personally transferred 16 UOC churches to the OCU in one month alone in 2022.

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