UOC community of Kotiuzhyny tells OSCE about persecutions by schismatics

On September 5, the religious community of the UOC from the village of Kotiuzhyny, headed by the rector of the St. Stephen, the First Martyr Church of the UOC, met with the representatives of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine. Believers of the church seized by schismatics told the OSCE members about a religious conflict in the village, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The meeting took place in the premises of the village council of Velikie Okniny of the Zbarazh region, in the presence of the chairman of the village council Vasily Koliada. The issue of the settlement of the conflict was in the focus of the discussion.

Archpriest Alexander Kantitsky said that the persecution of believers of the UOC continues. The schismatics are now persecuting the children of the parishioners.

"Representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate have already started to divide children in the kindergarten and school," the priest said. "They say, "These are our children, and those are the "Moskals’ children" and categorically refuse to let their children study with the children of our parishioners. And we are tired of conflicts. Just let them leave us and our children alone."

During the recent conflict, the schismatics deprived the UOC parishioners of the opportunity to perform services even in the priest's house.

"Things from the room in which we performed services were taken out, and access to the house is blocked, we stayed on the street," Father Alexander said. "Law enforcers officially recorded the offense, but in fact did nothing. At the moment we are performing divine services out in the open air."

The meeting with representatives of the OSCE mission took place at the initiative of the international observers. Prior to that, they had met with a representative of the Kiev Patriarchate. The next meetings will be held in October, after which a joint meeting of the two communities is planned.