How OCU followers seize the UOC temple in Chetvertnia: Chronicle of events
The information from a number of media outlets that a priest of the temple, attacked by the OCU supporters, beat a person during the skirmish turned out to be a lie.
The rector of the Holy Transfiguration temple of the UOC in Chetvertnia village, priest Seraphim Simonovich, denied that the priest allegedly beat someone in the temple territory in a clash of villagers at night on May 1, the press service of the Volyn Eparchy of the UOC reported.
Recall, on April 29, 2019, the UOC community in Chetvertnia held parish meetings and decided not to pass to the OCU. A day later, the OCU activists held a meeting at a local club and subsequently stated that 240, then 248, and finally 257 villagers voted at the meeting. This, in their opinion, meets the requirements of the law on the transition of religious communities, where there should be 2/3 supporters of the transition.
“None of us has seen the protocol yet,” says Father Seraphim, the rector.
As a result, it turned out that the raiders forged the data on the transition to the OCU. The rector of the temple added that the UOC community expects provocations by the OCU activists against the UOC believers.
“On the night of May 1, people accidentally noticed that one of the initiators of the “transition” for some reason was driving in the direction of the temple. According to the clergyman, having learned about this, he informed his parishioners, who also arrived at the church territory. There they saw two supporters of the OCU, who obviously intended to get inside the temple. When they were stopped, they began to aggressively behave with their fellow villagers, and therefore, a scuffle occured. Believers of the UOC immediately called the police to the scene of the incident; law enforcement officers drew up a report on this event and left the village,” writes the press service of the Volyn Eparchy.
The next day, false reports appeared in a number of media outlets that the UOC believers had allegedly attacked the OCU supporters. In addition, it was reported that the UOC priest beat a man during the clashes.
“Father Bogdan came with me to the scene of the incident, but the fact that he allegedly beat someone is outright nonsense and there are witnesses to confirm it,” commented Father Seraphim.
As local parishioner Peter said in a comment to the press service of the Volyn eparchy of the UOC, two unidentified men were armed with bats and were sitting next to the church.
“One of these two people began to beat another parishioner who arrived with me. In the end, people came running and those two men had to be pacified. The police subsequently arrived and everyone calmed down,” he said.
Therefore, according to him, the aggression was shown by the activists of the transition to the OCU. Yet, no one has acted violently toward the OCU adherents; furthermore, no one has inflicted heavy bodily injuries on them.
In turn, the above mentioned priest also arrived at the temple but this happened after the incident.
“I got ready and went to the temple later,” says the priest.
According to the priest, he just wanted to find out from two men what they were doing and in the end he was extremely surprised by the publications in the media about his alleged “particular cruelty” against the supporters of the OCU.
“I am a humble person, I am a priest, but they insulted my honor and dignity having accused me of what I did not do. I did not touch anyone with my finger. And it’s very frustrating when such a lie began to spread about me on the Internet, in the media. I just went to those people and asked why they had come to the temple. Why did they not come to the divine services, when, for example, the Holy Shroud was carried out on Great Friday? Why were they not in the temple and did not pray? ” the priest asks.
Earlier, the “honorary patriarch” of the OCU, Filaret Denisenko, stated that there were no seizures of the UOC temples.
At the same time, at the summit, the UN called for strengthening the protection of the rights of believers of the UOC.
