Who Prevents Orthodox Church in Khmelnitsky?

In Khmelnitsky representatives of the “Svoboda” party and local authorities prevent the construction of an Orthodox church. For more than 10 years the Orthodox community has been standing for the right to build a new church in Chekhov Street, near the military cemetery, next to the old city cemetery.

In 2003, Khmelnitsky Union of veterans of Afghanistan created an initiative group, which included ten Afghan War veterans, Orthodox Christians. Those veterans formed a church community, which suggested building an Orthodox Church of St. Dimitry Solunsky in Chekhov Street.

Every February, at the anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Afghanistan, Afghan War veterans go to the temple of God to commemorate their fallen brethren, and all the soldiers who died in wars. Therefore, they want to have their own church, for military men, which would honor the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.

City officials took time before they allocated land for the construction of an Orthodox church in late 2010, at the session of Khmelnitsky City Council. The City Union of Afghan Veterans purchased a trailer for a chapel, Metropolitan Anthony of Khmelnitsky and Starokonstantinovsky consecrated the construction site and the trailer-chapel, where since then the divine service has been held.

The area around the chapel was cleared of bushes and weeds – now it is no longer a place of gathering of drug addicts and drunkards as it used to be earlier when the local residents had to build a concrete wall round their houses to protect themselves against intruders. At the request of the Orthodox community, which worships in the chapel, municipal utilities began to take better care of the old cemetery.

All documents – a church draft, a required permission of municipal services – were duly completed. All services, especially Sunday ones, are attended by numerous Orthodox Christians. The believers have already raised a significant part of the funds for the construction of the new church. Construction works were about to begin.

However, in mid-January, the unknown broke a large wooden cross near the chapel. A Christmas tree that stood beside was overturned. Swear words and accusations against the senior priest, Fr. John Zinkevich, were written on the chapel walls, alleging that he works for a hostile state - Russia.

On February 5, after the service, Fr. John was approached by a group of people, among whom there was Yuri Smal, a deputy of Khmelnitsky Regional Council of the “Svoboda” party. He was outraged at the "expansion of the Russian world" and openly provoked an argument.

The “Svoboda” member was supported by Michael Krivak, the current secretary of the city council. He claimed for reconsidering the decision on land allocation for the construction of an Orthodox church, because, in his opinion, there are enough churches of the Moscow Patriarchate in the regional center.

Today there are 13 acting Orthodox churches and 2 chapels in Khmelnitsky. This number is much higher than in the Soviet times when atheism was the only religion permitted by Communists. But all these churches, including the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God, are crowded with the faithful, especially on Sundays and public holidays. And the number of Orthodox Christians is still growing. So the urban community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is building new places of worship. And not only them. It is becoming a center of the true Orthodox way of life.

Fr. John, together with the faithful, is engaged in charitable activities. This is what heads of the institutions of social welfare say about him. In particular, Sergey Kirilyuk, the director of the municipal social and health care centre "Medzhybizh orphanage" says: "Father John, together with the parishioners of the church where he is ministering, has been supporting our care home during the last three years. The church community buys clothes, footwear and bed linen for the charges of the boarding school. Besides, on the second floor of our building they built a small chapel, where the sick children pray. "

Anatoly Yurchenko, the director of Khmelnitsky city rehabilitation center for physically and mentally disabled children ("School of Life") adds: "Father John often comes to us, at all religious holidays he is with us, bringing Easter cakes to the children. He never refuses our requests for help, and has bought the chairs to the dining room for our youngest charges recently. This is a very kind-hearted and caring person."

This is the way things are: the "expansion of the Russian world in our lives”, conducted by John Zinkevich, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His service to God has long been appreciated by the faithful because this is not the first church where Fr. John has ministered. Residents of Vinkovtsy district know the spiritual father very well and always remember him with true gratitude.

As for those who believe that the construction site for the Church of St. Demetrius was badly chosen, let us remind them of some historical facts. In times of persecution by the Bolsheviks in 1936-38, when the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was closed in Proskurov, the clergy and the priesthood of the Cathedral were sent to service at the cemetery chapel in Kamenetska Street, near the place where the present St. Demetrius Church is going to be built. Therefore, the Orthodox community is almost 80 years old.

Today three petitions have been submitted for consideration to the City Council. The first – from the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Khmelnitsky, Khmelnitsky diocese, with a request not to prevent the construction of St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Church at 48 Chekhov Str. After all, the construction was initiated by the Orthodox Christians and Khmelnitsky City Union of Afghan War Veterans for worship, in particular, divine services for the health of military men and memorial services for the combatants who died in eastern Ukraine. In just a few days the petition was signed by 534 parishioners of Orthodox churches of Khmelnitsky.

The second petition – on understanding between the Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians around the construction of Khmelnitsky St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Roman Catholics propose to solve the issue of building the church in the following way: to provide a place for Orthodox Christians for the construction of St. Demetrius Church nearby, but not in the territory of the town cemetery; and to enable the Roman Catholic community to restore the cemetery and take care of it. They also suggest saving an Orthodox chapel and constructing a Roman Catholic chapel next it. And to finalize a consensus one might hold an ecumenical procession of the Roman Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Christians. The petition has gathered much fewer signatures.

The third petition is from the minority of residents who request the City Council to prohibit any construction at the old cemetery and to overturn the decision of the previous Khmelnitsky City Council, which granted the permit for the construction.

Who else can oppose the Orthodox Church and its temples? Unfortunately, there are enough such people, and among them are those who embody it with the image of the so-called Muscovite-enemy, forgetting that the UOC is independent from Russia. Back in 1990 it gained independence and full autonomy in management. It is the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine that is in communion with World Orthodoxy. And its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onufry, has repeatedly stressed out that the priesthood and the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church build neither the Russian world, nor the Ukrainian one, but the world of God.

Therefore, for those who have at heart the love for their neighbor, who do share the ideas of kindness and mercy, which Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, taught us, - such people will never bother with an Orthodox church, no matter where, when and who it would be built by.

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