Provocation occurs during a court hearing regarding Cherkasy UOC hierarch

Metropolitan Theodosiy leaving the court building amidst provocateurs' shouts. Photo: Screenshot from the YouTube channel of the Cherkasy Eparchy

In Cherkasy on May 7th, a group of so-called activists staged a provocation outside the building of the Sosnivka District Court during a hearing on another case involving Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv. The video was published on the YouTube channel of the Cherkasy Eparchy.

The provocateurs brought posters with inscriptions such as "Down with the Moscow priest," "Theodosiy behind bars," "Why did the court release Theodosiy for the Easter night service," and so on.

When the bishop was leaving the court building, they began shouting insults at him, while believers at that time greeted the hierarch with the words "Christ is Risen!"

The "rally" was covered by local media. According to the position conveyed by the protester Denis Hayda to "Suspilne. Cherkasy", he is allegedly dissatisfied with the fact that the metropolitan was allowed to perform the Easter service.

"Concerned citizens held a rally before Easter near the largest UOC-MP cathedral in Cherkasy. Given that this is the day when the largest number of citizens attend church, we wanted to draw attention to the fact that it is not worth going to consecrate Easter in the Moscow church, the head of which, Theodosiy, is currently under trial. We were outraged by the fact that the court allowed Theodosiy to conduct the service on Easter night, despite the fact that he should be under night house arrest. I don't understand why they mitigate the measure of restraint for him and accommodate him," the provocateur expressed his indignation.

The publication also quoted a believing resident of Cherkasy who came to support the bishop: "They are judging our bishop. We, as a community, came to support him because he is our Vladyka."

In response to the provocative question from the journalist about whether another believer, Olga, knows that the bishop is a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate, she replied: "Our church is a thousand years old, and Moscow was not even close then. Our great-great-grandfathers used to go to our Church."

The woman also added that, according to the journalist's logic, the recently created Poroshenko's Orthodox Church should be called the Turkish Orthodox Church. "Bartholomew is Turkish, right? So why don't you say that the OCU is Turkish? Why haven't you labeled it like that? Ours is a thousand years old, and your actions toward it are wrong," she said.

As the UOJ reported, on May 4th in Cherkasy, radicals painted the territory of the UOC cathedral.

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