The rector of the seized temple: We have 500 believers, while the OCU – 37

Participants in the seizure of the UOC temple in Priputni. Photo: facebook page Andriy Kovalov

The religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which until April 4, 2021 prayed at the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Pryputni, Chernihiv region, numbers about 500 people, and as few as 37 activists voted for the "transfer" of the church to the OCU. Father Sergiy, the rector of the seized church of the UOC, told about this in his comments to the resource "Orthodox Life".

On the day of the seizure, the believers came to the morning service, but the “service” of the OCU was already going on in their church, and “there were unknown young people in the yard,” the UOC priest said.

“After the end of the service, young people who had entered the church earlier declared it the property of the OCU, and also said that the UOC community would no longer be allowed into the temple, so they hung up the locks and left,” Fr. Sergiy gave the details of the raider seizure.

He specified that among the raiders who organized the seizure of the temple, there were only a few local residents, including the “cleric” of the OCU, former hieromonk Leonty, who was banned from priesthood.

“I would like to say that the religious community of the UOC in our and the neighboring village (we have one church) numbers more than 500 people,” stressed Father Sergiy. - The temple itself was built back in 1886 by the efforts of the villagers, who themselves built a brick factory, a school and our temple. In 2019, OCU activists held an illegal vote on the transfer of the UOC community to the OCU. 37 people voted ‘for’. You see, there are 500 of us faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church versus 37 of them! "

The priest recalled that the decision to re-register the community was appealed in court.

“Now we hope for God's Help and the protection of the law, so on April 4 I wrote a statement to the police about the seizure of the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the UOC in Pryputni village, ”he said.

As the UOJ reported, on April 4, 2021, the nationalists of Svoboda seized the UOC church in Priputni. About 20 people came to the village to organize the seizure. Some of them were identified by the believers – they were participants in the seizures of the UOC churches in other settlements of the region, in particular, in the villages of Kruty, Parafiyevka, etc. The UOJ also published details of the seizure of the temple in Priputni.

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