In Sumy provocateurs attempt to disrupt the service of UOC
On October 14, a group of unidentified persons arranged a “concert” during the traditional service at the site of the destroyed Intercession Church in Sumy.
The provocateurs were located a few meters from the place of the worship performed in Pokrovskaya Square, turning up the loudspeakers through which the music was broadcast, reports “Pravoslavnaya Sumschina” (“The Orthodox Sumy region”).
On the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, more than two thousand Orthodox citizens of Sumy, who gathered for the worship, were forced to tolerate this “concert”. Law enforcers did not react to the actions of provocateurs.
Metropolitan Eulogy of Sumy and Akhtyrka noted that this provocation, like last year’s, became possible only with the tacit consent and inaction of the authorities. The archpastor expressed regret in this regard and stressed that the sin committed at outraging the Church of Christ, as well as its consequences, fully falls on the governor of the Sumy region and the mayor of the regional centre, who did not do anything so that Orthodox Sumy believers could have a possibility to freely honour the patronal feast of the Holy Protection Church, destroyed in the years of godless persecution.
As the UOJ reported, last year provocateurs also tried to disrupt the UOC worship service on the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in Sumy, broadcasting loud music. We recall that in 2017, for the first time, the executive committee of the Sumy city council did not allow Archbishop Eulogy of Sumy and Akhtyrka hold a traditional service in Pokrovskaya Square and a religious procession on October 14.