Metropolitan Clement prays with liquidated UOC community in Kruty

The Archangel Michael parish of the UOC in the village of Kruty continues its liturgical life after the seizure of their church. Photo: Nizhyn Diocese

On All Saints Day, June 30, 2024, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky made an archpastoral visit to the village of Kruty in the Chernihiv region to support the Michael’s religious community, which was expelled from its own church, reports the press service of the Nizhyn Diocese.

Metropolitan Clement, along with Bishop Feodosiy of Ladansk, diocesan priests, and the parish rector, Archpriest Vasyl Vilkhovetsky, celebrated a communal Divine Liturgy in a room adapted for worship.

The diocese reminds that on the night of December 17, 2023, after the state authorities liquidated the charter of the religious community in Kruty, unknown individuals cut the locks and broke the doors of the Archangel Michael Church.

Since then, the religious community has not been able to enter the church building, which they had spent decades restoring and rebuilding after years of desecration under the atheistic regime.

Since then, the religious community, including the parish rector and about a hundred parishioners, have been forced to conduct their services in an adapted room in the yard of one of the village houses. Here, the believers, together with their priest, pray and collect humanitarian and other assistance for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

During the Sunday service, prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine. Clergy and believers asked God for blessings for the defenders of Ukraine and for divine protection for all those affected by the war.

"Despite all the difficulties and persecutions, the rector and parishioners continue to actively support the Armed Forces of Ukraine by making camouflage nets and collecting essential humanitarian aid for the soldiers. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, both of Archpriest Vasyl's elder sons have joined the Ukrainian army and are courageously defending Ukraine's independence on the front lines," the message states.

As previously reported, Nizhyn honored the city's holy patroness, St. Smaragda.

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