Crush and blood: Volhynia church sealed after OCU provocation at liturgy

On the morning of May 29, 2022, the St. Michael church in the city of Rozhyshche (Volyn diocese) was subjected to another attack by schismatics. During the liturgy, supporters of the Dumenko structure broke into the temple and demanded that the temple be transferred to the OCU. The parishioners, who had been prayerfully defending the shrine for several days and spent the night in the temple, called the military police from the regional center. According to the parishioners, the OCU raiders behaved aggressively. Several people were taken outside covered in blood.

“Some person was taken out under the arms, his face was covered in blood,” a source near Rozhyshche told the UOJ. He added that the parishioners hoped for the protection of the regional police. However, law enforcement officers who arrived from the region expelled the parishioners of the UOC from the church and sealed the doors, although the local police supported the believers. As early as May 24, representatives of the Rozhyshche police claimed that the supporters of the OCU had no legal grounds to demand the keys to the temple, because all documents confirm the ownership of the UOC religious community to the St. Michael church.

The parishioners added that constant attacks of the OCU raiders brought the rector of the temple to a heart attack, and the believers of the UOC are threatened.

Human rights activist Victoria Kokhanovskaya commented on the situation on her Facebook: “Volyn region, Lutsk district, the city of Rozhyshche, due to the inactivity of law enforcement agencies for five days, Archpriest Peter Ivanychko, dean of the Rozhyshche district, rector of the St. Michael church of the UOC Rozhyshche had a heart attack. A number of bodily injuries and bloodshed, misappropriation of the property of a religious community and constant threats, manifestations of discrimination, humiliation of the citizens of Ukraine with the leveling of the Constitutional rights to freedom of religion and the principles of democracy.”

Recall that on May 23, 2022, OCU raiders tried to seize St. Michael's church by cutting off the locks on the doors, while on May 26, Archpriest Peter Ivanychko, the rector of the church, was hospitalized with a heart attack.

As the UOJ wrote, a prayer standing of the UOC took place in Popelnia in defense of the temple from the seizure of the OCU.

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