Police help schismatics take over the UOC temple in vlg. Stary Gvozdets (VIDEO)

On November 4 there was a forced seizure of the Holy Annunciation temple in Stary Gvozdets village and, despite the court decision, the police took the side of raiders from the Kyiv Patriarchate, reports the press-service of Ivano-Frankovsk eparchy of the UOC.

At 9 o'clock in the morning supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate opened the church and held their divine service there. About 30 policemen pushed aside the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and did not allow them to enter the worship building. It is noted that on the eve of November 3, the Kolomyia District Court issued a decision that satisfied the complaint of the religious community of Stary Gvozdets village about the inaction of the Kolomyia police department and ordered the law enforcers to bring information to the Single Register of Pre-trial Investigations concerning the events that occurred in Stary Gvozdets in October 2017.

Ostap Bileychuk, head of the Kolomyia department of the police of the State Unitary Enterprise in Ivano-Frankivsk region, personally banned Orthodox believers from entering the church, which was transferred to them for use in 1991, and noted that if believers are dissatisfied with something, they can go to court. The UOC eparchy specifies that namely this official in June facilitated raiding of the Holy Annunciation church of the UOC of Kolomyia by the so called “chaplains” from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Bileychuk was also present during the bashing of the Orthodox priest in the court session hall n 29 June 2017, after the court hearing on the inaction of law enforcement and illegal seizure of the temple in Kolomyia.

The Holy Assumption church was built in the second half of the 19th century, and for 45 years the priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Nikolai Kushnir, has conducted his pastoral ministry here. As the diocesan site notes, neither the authority of the priest nor the Christian commandments prevented the intruders from taking possession of the Orthodox temple.

On October 14, head of the village council of Stary Gvozdets and representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate held a meeting of the villagers, voting for changing the canonical subordination of the religious community of the Holy Assumption church. The UOC community did not participate in this "referendum", but the adherents of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” took hold of the church keys and hanged new door locks.

Currently the rector of the church, priest Nikolai Kushnir, and his numerous flock are compelled to hold divine worships near the walls of their own temple.

To be reminded, NGO “Public Advocacy” in its research pointed to the fact that the responsibility for the growth of religious crimes in Ukraine may be laid on the law enforcement bodies.

Chairman of the UOC Law Department Archpriest Alexander Bakhov noted that Kyiv Patriarchate and biased mass media deliberately distort the information, relating to illegal seizures of the UOC temples.