Bishop of Volyn UOC reveals how many churches were seized by OCU

Since 2019, supporters of the OCU have seized 117 churches from the communities of the Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as reported in an interview by Metropolitan Nathanael of Volyn and Lutsk to the Dzvony Volyni newspaper.

According to the bishop, it is "hard to see how the seized churches stand empty."

He revealed that nine communities expelled from the churches have already built new ones, while others pray in adapted premises.

Metropolitan Nathanael emphasized the situation in the parish of the Ilyinsky Church in the village of Boroche, where activists of the OCU took away the shrine while the rector, Archpriest Yuri Zarafutdinov, defends Ukraine on the front lines.

"It is particularly distressing and painful that, indeed, while Father Yuri is at war, 'activists' in his village of Borochych in Horokhiv region seized the church, despite the fact that there is already one OCU church in the village," the metropolitan noted. "However, the UOC community in Borochych has survived; Orthodox Christians now pray in a hut. Temporarily, while Father Yuri is at war protecting us, another priest cares for the believers."

According to the archpastor, persecuted Christians who gather in prayer houses often receive special grace from the Lord.

"Recently, for example, in a village in Horokhiv region, there was such a case. The UOC community, which prayed in a hut for some time, built a temporary church to replace the one that was seized. At the last service in this hut, the priest spotted all od the people crying. At first, he thought it was tears of joy from those gathered, but it turned out not at all. 'No, Father, we are crying for this hut,' the believers replied. 'We feel so good here that we don't want to leave. We cried because we didn't want to leave this place so that the grace of God would not leave us.' In this inconspicuous hut, they felt such divine grace that they had never felt anywhere else before. And they cried because they did not want to leave this place so that God's grace would not leave them," the bishop recounted.

He also reported that during the existence of the OCU, 16 churches from the Volyn Diocese joined this structure, along with priests. One of them is the parish of Mary Magdalene in Lutsk, led by Archpriest Oleksandr Kolb.

"Indeed, the priest went to the OCU, but far from all the believers supported him. A significant part of the community turned to the vicar of the diocese, Bishop Athanasius of Kamin-Kashyrsky, with a request for spiritual care and support. We know that another part of the community now attends the Holy Protection Church in Lutsk. This is not fiction or speculation. Today, the former cleric of the Mary Magdalene Church, Fr. Rustik Kapauz, is a cleric of the Holy Protection Church, so he knows people from the previous parish personally," Metropolitan Nathanael noted.

As the UOJ reported earlier, the secretary of the Rivne Diocese of the UOC, Archpriest Viktor Zemlianoy, said that in Rivne (Rivne and Sarny Dioceses), all communities of the churches seized by supporters of the OCU had survived, and these communities have premises for worship.