Sretensky temple of UOC forcefully seized in Cherkasy

Sretensky temple of the UOC in Cherkasy. Photo: cherkasy.church.ua

On August 3, 2023, in Cherkasy, supporters of the OCU seized the Sretensky Church (bishop's residence) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This was announced in a video message by the head of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC, Metropolitan Theodosy.

He said that the activists “in a frenzied crowd, with the support of the security forces, broke into the Sretensky Church and seized it by force, breaking the locks and throwing the long-term rector with seven children out of the parish house.”

The bishop recalled that earlier (on June 29, 2023), the initiators of the seizure “gathered deputies of the city council, state employees, people who had nothing to do with the church at all, in a stadium not far from the church, held a meeting there, which they called a ‘parish meeting’, registered its protocol and made changes about the legal entity in the state register.

“Brutally, violating all thinkable and unthinkable laws, using the raider scheme, which was tested in the rural places, a crime was committed in the regional center,” the metropolitan said. “Perhaps, after the recent expulsion of the Cherkasy sisters of mercy, when they were thrown out into the street from the church in the city hospital, this is the second largest atrocity of the persecutors of the Church in our city.”

Vladyka noted that the Sretensky Church was built at the expense of the Cherkasy diocesan administration of the UOC – "a legally existing legal entity."

“It was simply stolen from the Cherkasy diocese through a raider scheme,” the metropolitan emphasized.

As the UOJ wrote, earlier the press service of the Cherkasy diocese published video footage of the parish meeting of the Sretensky community held on June 28, at which the parishioners unanimously voted to remain in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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