The Kyiv Patriarchate is Sowing Discord among Villagers of Okhnovka

In the village of Ohnovka, Vladimir-Volyn district, Volyn region, a conflict over the Church of St. John the Devine is going to start. Representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate have made a claim to the church, which by law belongs to the community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

They maintain that a capsule of the Kiev Patriarchate was laid in the foundation of the church. And this is true. However, the matter didn’t get any further than laying the capsule. Neither the parishioners of the Kiev Patriarchate, nor the clergy were engaged in the construction. Later it was continued by the local UOC congregation, leaving an old wooden chapel to the KP followers. By the way, the latter hasn’t been repaired or renovated so far.

The funds for the construction were raised all together. But they were still not enough to complete the work. For several years the church stood unfinished. The construction was completed due to the local benefactor, the director of "Progress" Ltd. Anatoliy Vitruk. The only condition he made, donating money, was that the church should belong to the UOC.

At that time, in 2007, Anatoliy Vitruk’s initiative was supported by 196 out of 240 villagers. The finished temple was consecrated by a UOC priest. The premises went to the balance of Okhnovka congregation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The believers of the Kiev Patriarchate have been going to the dilapidated chapel. They even didn’t have their own prior – a KP priest from the neighboring village came to serve them.

After Maidan a peaceful started to shake with scandals. Indeed, it is men of genius who start a revolution, fanatics who commit it and scoundrels who enjoy the fruit of it. Representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate desired to possess a new beautiful church, built by the parishioners of the UOC, and began to prepare for the seizure of it, involving local officials, deputies and businessmen. Those who did their best to toad to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill during his visit to Volyn are now taking over churches of the UOC congregation.

An ostentatious fight against the "" is a wonderful way to build a reputation of a patriot. Especially on the eve of elections to local authorities. All the more so, a serious restructuring of local administration is going to come. And local potentates, due to mergers of districts and villages, can significantly increase their "ownership".

In Okhnovka, all started with the conflict between the priest and the head of the village. In the autumn of 2014 it became clear that the village head hadn’t paid for electricity, used by the temple, for 7 years, from the date of its opening. Becuause of the manipulations of the village head, the prior of the UOC church Vitaliy Paliy appeared to owe "Volynenergo" almost 17, 000 hrn. After the scandal the head of the village was re-elected, but the conflict wasn’t resolved. Representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate skillfully started to stir it up.

A parishioner Helen Golotovska accused Father Vitaliy of calling her son, a veteran of the ATO, a sinner and refusing to give communion to him. Later this infamous libel was denied. However, black PR technology has already been in action.

Golotovska’s statement was the starting point of open confrontation. In Okhnovka emerged young people, who collected signatures for the unification of the two religious communities into the one. Such impromptu "referendum" is a "visiting card" of the Kiev Patriarchate. As a rule, it precedes raider attacks on a church.

However, this "referendum" was different from the previous ones. The activists collected signatures for the creation of autocephalous church within the same village. It is difficult to understand what "initiative young people” meant by the term "autocephaly". But they were unlikely to aim at the creation of the second or in Okhnovka. Obviously, illiterate in church affairs, hired "activists" meant the acquisition of the UOC community by the UOC KP community.

Having learned from bitter experience in other villages, where churches were seized, Father Vitaliy held his own sign-in. 103 people voted in favor of the UOC community. In addition, the prior has all the documents proving ownership of the church and the premises.

On July 29, parishioners of the UOC saw strange activity near their church and called the police. As it turned out, several rural "activists" decided to establish a national flag near the church and began to dig under its foundation, without notifying anyone about it. Later, the same activists presented the panic of the UOC parishioners as unwillingness to see the Ukrainian flag next to their church and blew the trumpet of it.

The situation escalated to the limit on August 2. The Kiev Patriarchate supporters came from all the surrounding villages and the regional center to Okhnovka for the Sunday service. The prior of the the Devine also called his fellow believers for help. A lot of parishioners of the UOC arrived to support Okhnovka villagers. It was crowded in the small village on Sunday morning.

After the service the Kiev Patriarchate followers assembled the so-called "peaceful meeting". However, it turned out to be peaceful only due to the timely response of local law enforcement. Cross-talks between supporters of the two faiths were very hot. The KP priests even went into the yard of the UOC church to invite parishioners of the UOC to the meeting, but they were ignored. The meeting resulted in declaration of “autocephaly” by 133 votes in Okhnovka. But at what price!

A few weeks later relations amongst the villagers escalated to the limit. The rural road was divided into two parts. "True patriots" were allowed to go on one side of the road, while "accomplices of the separatists" went on the other one. The KP followers turned to direct threats and intimidation of children. For the support of the UOC they promised to take the UOC parishioners to the woods and bury them there or deport undesirable villagers to the east, to separatists.

The following Sunday service, on August 9, was visited by a notorious chaplain of the Kiev Patriarchate Nikolay Ginaylo, caught in scheming with humanitarian aid for the soldiers of the 14th Brigade. However, the parishioners of the UOC and the prior were on the look out. They managed to prevent provocations.

Today the prior of the the Devine, Father Vitaliy, tries to defend the rights of his parishioners by all legal means. According to Ukrainian law, the owner of the church or any other church property is not a village, but a religious community. Even if the UOC congregation in Okhnovka only counts 10 parishioners, but not half of the village as it is today, no one has the right to take their church out. Being a real Christian pastor, Father Vitaliy turned to his opponents with a conciliatory speech.

"For the believer, the church is their life. For a man, who all his life was present at every liturgy, and now is deprived of the church, it is equal to death. A believer, fulfilling the commandments of God, will never do evil to their neighbor. Dear opponents, we respect your community and do not interfere with your affairs. Leave us alone. Fear God, don’t put Him into wrath because of all comes the reckoning!”

The upcoming weeks will show whether these words reach the hearts of those who are preparing for another seizure of an Orthodox church. Meanwhile, in the heart of , one more village is divided by religious affiliation due to the efforts of dissenters. 

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