OCU on assault in Mikhalcha: We won’t retreat as Phanar head fights for us
The OCU compared the assault of the UOC church in Mikhalcha with the wars of Napoleon, saying that it was just a “lost battle” and they were proud of their believers.
On the official website of the Chernivtsi Eparchy of the OCU, a militant appeal to the members of its structure appeared, in which the storming of the UOC temple in the village of Mikhalcha on December 12, 2020, is described as a lost battle but not a defeat.
The voluminous publication of the OCU eparchy is extremely saturated with militarist rhetoric, which mentions Napoleon's wars, forefathers who “died but did not betray the idea,” and also compares the actions of the UOC believers who defended their church with those who “fought against the Ukrainian people on the Maidan”.
“We failed in the fight, so this cannot be called a defeat. The lost battles were not called a defeat, because the defeat testified to the invincible spirit of the fighters,” says the message of the OCU about the storming of the UOC temple using brass knuckles, bits and tear gas, which was previously called "prayer". “Lost battles have always united our forefathers, and a lost battle is NOT a defeat, but fortitude. The forefathers died but did not betray the idea. They died but did not betray the spirit of their Ukrainian people. The Church is proud of its parishioners who have not betrayed ... .”
The OCU recalled that even Napoleon at one time suffered failures in battles but fought and then won.
The Chernivtsi Eparchy urged its believers not to give up, "not to retreat from the holy cause" because otherwise, they would be ashamed before the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who "tirelessly fights for our cause".
According to the OCU, the head of the Phanar is "the master of the Ukrainian Church," and Moscow is organizing a "shameless crime" – inciting the believers of the UOC against him. But "neglecting the bishop is neglecting Jesus Christ".
The eparchy representatives believe that the members of the OCU should be grateful to Patriarch Bartholomew since he "proved that our bishops are true". They also criticized the UOC, which “tried to prove that “ our Church is non-canonical, that is why Constantinople does not recognize it, and now it officially recognizes it and still they do not like it. And we have always been canonical."
The OCU urged its parishioners not to reflect on the failed assault and not to say that “it could have been like this ..., it should have been like this ... or like that”. According to the eparchy, "it is possible or not, but there were difficulties because the proponents of Moscow Orthodoxy are like those who fought against the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state in Kyiv on the Maidan."
As reported, on December 12, 2020, there was an attempted seizure of the UOC church by the OCU members in the village of Mikhalcha, Chernivtsi region. Early in the morning, buses with unknown people arrived at the church, including supporters of the OCU in the village. There were several dozen of them. To identify each other, they put red bandages on their arm. The group was led by a “priest” of the OCU, also with a bandage. They had an electric generator, bats, brass knuckles, sledgehammers, tear gas, etc. The temple guards were pushed out of the gate, the surveillance cameras, the alarm siren were damaged, and the door to the temple was broken with sledgehammers.
The parishioners who tried to enter the territory of their temple were poisoned with tear gas. Law enforcers confiscated brass knuckles and bats from them. Following an offence, three criminal cases were initiated.
The UOC community has been protecting their church for a year and 10 months. This is the third attack attempt organized by supporters and "priests" of the OCU. On November 1, 2019, the "believers" of the OCU knocked out the doors of the church in Mikhalcha with a homemade ram.
