Bucharest urges to respond to Romanian community's church transfer to OCU

The Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, the burial chapel of the Metropolitans of Bukovyna in Chernivtsi. Photo: raskolam.net

The National Council of Romanians in Ukraine, which includes more than 20 Romanian-speaking public organizations, sent an appeal to the Romanian government and the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, asking them to "participate in efforts to return the first church in Chernivtsi where services were conducted in Romanian, after it was 'maliciously' seized by the local administration." This was reported by Hotnews.ro, citing Agerpres.

The appeal concerns the situation around the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, the burial chapel of the Metropolitans of Bukovyna, which belongs to the Romanian-speaking parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Chernivtsi. The city authorities sealed the church and transferred ownership to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

"With deep sorrow, we inform you that by decision of the Chernivtsi city council, we were deprived of the chapel of the Bukovinian hierarchs, dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs in Chernivtsi, a place where we have prayed in Romanian for almost 30 years. The last liturgy was served outside the church by Father Christofor Gabor on Sunday, August 25, 2024. This is the first Romanian church where services were conducted in Romanian, unjustly taken by the authorities," the appeal reads.

The National Council of Romanians in Ukraine stated that they have long endured discrimination by the Ukrainian authorities based on language, and now they are facing religious persecution as well.

"Now the authorities are coming to take our churches, to dictate when, to whom, and how we should pray. We have every reason to view the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, depriving the Romanian community of this place of worship, as part of a new offensive against the Romanian minority in Ukraine, violating national laws, bilateral interstate agreements, and European and international human rights laws," the statement notes.

The Romanians in Ukraine called on the Romanian government to "take a stand against the theft of the Metropolitan Chapel by the Ukrainian authorities, a disgraceful act that contradicts the spirit and letter of the Basic Treaty between Ukraine and Romania and other bilateral and multilateral legal documents to which Ukraine is a party." They also called for "bringing Romanian Orthodox communities in Ukraine under the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church."

As previously reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ), on August 27, the Chernivtsi City Council decided to transfer the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, the burial chapel of the Metropolitans of Bukovyna, from the Romanian-speaking UOC parish to the ownership of the OCU.

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