The UOC Community in Rivne Region Defends its Rights in Court

The religious community of the Holy Pokrovsky Church of vlg. Riasnyky, Goshcha district, Rivne region, won a lawsuit on official misconduct of the local village council. This was reported to the Union of Orthodox Journalists by Fr. Victor Zemlianoy, a cleric of the Rivne diocese.

According to the priest, the head of the local village council tried to persuade parishioners of the UOC community to go under jurisdiction of the Kiev Patriarchate in spring 2015. Having received no support, he took an illegal decision to ban the release of documents on the land for the church. That decision was intended to prevent the UOC community to obtain the right of permanent use of this land plot.

"The head of the village council did not even inform the community about the decision. The parishioners learnt about it from an engineer-surveyor, who had to stop the design and survey work because of the ban of the village council," - said Fr. Victor.

After this, the community applied to the secretary of the village council for explanation, and the official provided copies of the relevant decisions of the village council session of August 4, 2015. By these decisions, the local council actually cancelled its decisions of 2013, securing the land rights of the UOC community.

Because of these actions of the village council, the religious community of the Holy Pokrovsky Church appealed to the Goshcha District Court with a demand to overturn unlawful decisions of Riasnyky village council. On October 20, 2015, the court determined to satisfy the claims of the UOC community in full.

It is not the first time local authorities have intervened in interconfessional relations. In the village of Uhryniv, Volyn region, a similar scenario took place when the village council wrongly denied the priest of the UOC in registration of the right of use of corporate housing, which led to legal action to initiate criminal proceedings for abuse of power by the head of the village council, which the priest from Uhryniv won.

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