An official from OCU demands from UOC priest keys to church in Mikhalcha
Believers of the UOC recalled that officials should block the incitement of sectarian enmity, rather than provoke it.
On April 18, 2021, an official-activist of the OCU Nikolai Gergeliuk demanded that the priest Sergey Tsurkan, rector of the Holy Dormition church of the UOC in Mikhalcha village, Chernivtsi region, give the keys to the church.
On the Facebook page of the church in Mikhalcha, it was reported that during the cross procession around the church, Father Sergey Tsurkan “was approached by Nikolai Gergelyuk and Vasily Maskal with the demand to give the keys to the church, setting a deadline “until Saturday”.
The community representatives recalled that “at present, the court of Kyiv is considering our church case, but the laws do not apply to the believers of the OCU.”
In addition, one of the activists of the OCU Nikolay Gergeliuk, holds the position of the state registrar and, as a representative of the state power, “works in the department of culture, whose powers are aimed at preventing any interreligious conflicts, but he himself incites them,” the UOC believers emphasized.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the UOC community in Mikhalcha offered a way to resolve the conflict with the OCU.
