Met. Theodosiy: After the seizure, the OCU 'hierarch' serves with my staff

Ioann Yaremenko "serving" in the seized cathedral of the UOC. Photo: Facebook of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the OCU

Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy said in an interview with the Greek resource Romfea that after the seizure of the Archangel Michael Cathedral it was subjected to looting by the ‘clergy’ of the OCU.

‘‘Metropolitan’ of the OCU Ivan Yaremenko immediately after the forceful seizure posed for publicity in my office, personally looting my library. He did this without any shame, and then posted his video on the Internet. Now this Yaremenko ‘serves’ in the seized cathedral, using the vestments of our clergy, my personal staff, a dikirion and a trikirion and other church utensils,’ Metropolitan Theodosiy said.

He reminded that the cathedral of the UOC seized by Yaremenko’s associates, as well as the complex of buildings of the eparchial administration with all their contents, “is the private property of our eparchy as a legal entity with the appropriate property documents”.

“Also, we have the State Act for the land on the land plot under our church complex,” the Metropolitan emphasized.

Nevertheless, according to the bishop, what struck him most in the events of the seizure was not the fact of the apparent violation of private property rights.

“Most of all we were shocked and horrified by the malice and hatred, the inhumanity with which the representatives of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ beat not only me but also our priests, nuns and laymen,” the Metropolitan said. “With brutal screams people from the OCU broke the believers' arms, legs and ribs, threw them on the ground and beat them with their feet, fragments of the stasidia and even church banners. They knocked out the teeth of priests, shot at believers with traumatic weapons right in the temple of God and gassed them. This was accompanied by profanity and shouts of sacrilege. All this was recorded on video surveillance cameras. These events shocked and horrified not only the residents of Cherkasy but also many people both in Ukraine and around the world.”

The Cherkasy bishop believes that he himself was saved from death only by the metropolitan klobuk, which took a blow with a stick from the ‘believer’ of the OCU: “According to the opinion of familiar forensic experts who studied the video of the attack, the purpose of hitting the representative of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ on my head with a club was a premeditated murder. Only a strong monk's klobuk softened the blow to a concussion.”

As reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Theodosiy called on the head of the Phanar to suspend the OCU's Tomos.

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