Zoria: More people attend my liturgy than the one of UOC First Hierarch

Sunday "divine service" in the temple at Zoria. Photo: Zoria’s Facebook

The spokesman of the OCU Ivan (Eustratiy) Zoria claimed that more parishioners come to his service at the Catherine Cathedral in Chernigov than to the Primate’s of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Onuphry. He wrote about this in a comment under the post to his publication on Facebook.

Addressing an employee of the UOC DECR Sergei Bortnik, Zoria wrote, "In fact, I had more believers at the liturgy today than at the service of your First Hierarch."

In response, Sergei Bortnik ironically remarked to Zoria that "I am delighted with the crowds of believers who attend your services in Chernigov – 10-20 people and sometimes even up 30 people."

The photographs posted by Zoria from the Sunday divine service in the Catherine Cathedral allow us to say that Bortnik was not mistaken – there were up to 10 parishioners in the church.

Zoria dedicated his post on Facebook, under which these comments appeared, to the divine service of the UOC in which the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, Sergei Trofimov, participated as a subdeacon.

"A man who is very similar to the first deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, serves the head of the Metropolitanate of the Russian Church in Ukraine," wrote Zoria and noted that Trofimov is responsible for registering the statutes of religious communities.

We add that the Sunday worship, which was officiated by His Beatitude Onuphry, was held in the Church of All Saints of the Holy Panteleimon Monastery in Kyiv. According to the UOJ, this service took place behind closed doors and there were no parishioners at all. The believers at this time were praying in the monastery’s cathedral.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Epiphany and 11 “hierarchs” of the OCU “served” in the half-empty Drabinko’s Cathedral.

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