Kiev Patriarchate hampers construction of a new UOC shrine in Gribovitsa

On 27 January, at the session of Gribovitsa village council, there was discussed an issue of permission to re-document the land for a new church construction on the private territory that belongs to the UOC community senior, protopriest Igor Margita. However, voting did not yield any positive outcome, for the most part because of threats of “activists” from the Kiev Patriarchate who were at the meeting, according to the UOJ correspondent.

“It can be said there wasn’t any session as it is,” comments on the event father Igor. “The deputies were in fact not able to ask anything, since the KP activists were shouting down everybody.”

Herewith one of the opponents addressed direct threats to the deputies that if the latter voted for this technical land project, they “would be spitted into their faces.” According to the priest, there were 8 village council deputies out of 12 and in the end 5 of the present deputies voted against with 3 refrained.

How the village council is going to substantiate their refusal is not clear for now. The priest said he would not abandon his parishioners and bring the new church construction to its logical end; however, if it doesn’t work to find common ground with the village council, the construction will have to be carried out within the house church standards – not to violate the land maintenance regulations.

Holy Intercession parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appealed to the village council for permission as the beginning of December last year, yet the council procrastinated with the reply for over 1 month and a half. The point is a land plot of 0,25 ha on which a shabby old house is located – the priest decided by to give this property for the needs of the community in order to build a new church on this very place instead of the one having been grabbed by the Kiev Patriarchate in September 2015.

During all this time members of the village council in Gribovitsa had some consultations with the district power, then they sent an inquiry to the regional bodies on re-documentation of the designated use of the land. From 19 January to the end of January the reply did not come from the region, therefore the issue was listed in the session’s agenda.

From 20 September 2015 up to the present day the UOC parish, which were deprived of their church, hold services in their priest’s house trying to find a way out of the conflict with fellow villagers. However, the session, which was so crucial to them, showed that their counterpart, which already owns the illegally seized church, is incapable of reaching an agreement.

As the UOJ reported earlier, Kiev Patriarchate refused to pay electricity bills in the taken over temple.