Zoria holds a "bishop's divine service" in seized UOC church in Pryputni

Zoria's "Bishop's Divine Service" in Pryputni. Photo: facebook.com/yevstr

On April 17, 2021, the spokesman of the OCU Eustratiy Zoria held a "bishop's service" in the UOC church in Pryputni, the Ichnia OTG of the Chernihiv region, seized by supporters of his structure.

On his Facebook page, Zoria said that he had arrived at the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Pryputni at the invitation of "Archimandrite" Leonty Pustovoit and the religious community.

Zoria said that the majority of representatives of the religious community spoke in favor of the “transition” of the temple in Pryputni. However, judging by the photographs published by him, there are very few people at the "divine service", especially given the fact that the spokesman of the OCU brought along a "miraculous" icon to Pryputni.

According to Zoria, public order during the "divine service" was ensured by the National Police, and "patriotic activists, veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war" arrived to "support the community" which "passed from Russian jurisdiction to the local OCU".

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Holy Nativity of the Theotokos church of the UOC in the village of Pryputni had been repeatedly raided by supporters of the OCU. During one of them, in September 2019, activists beat its rector, Fr. Sergiy, and a parishioner who had to be hospitalized. Then the believers of the UOC managed to defend their shrine and continued to pray in their church.

On April 4, 2021, nationalists from the Svoboda Party organized the seizure of the Holy Nativity of the Theotokos church of the UOC in the village of Pryputni, Chernihiv region: at night the raiders cut off the locks on the temple and installed their own. Later in the afternoon, with the informational support of Channel 5 and with the police inaction, they entered the church.

The religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which until April 4, 2021, prayed in the temple of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Pryputni, Chernihiv region, numbers about 500 people against 37 activists, who voted for the "transfer" of the church to the OCU.

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