Volyn: UOC community in Borochiche is re-registered to OCU
St. Nicholas Church in Borochiche was taken over by the OCU at the end of a wave of raider seizures of UOC churches in the Volyn region in the summer of 2019.
On July 8, 2021, the chairman of the Volyn regional state administration, Yuriy Pogulyaiko, signed order No. 406, with which he re-registered in favour of the OCU another UOC community in the region – the St. Nicholas parish of the Borochiche village of the united Lutsk region (former Gorokhiv region). The document was published on the website of the Volyn Regional State Administration.
The church was placed at the disposal of the OCU at the end of a wave of raider seizures of the temples of the canonical Church in the region, in the summer of 2019. As reported, the temple was seized by the OCU activists, taking advantage of the absence of the abbot.
At the same time, in this village near the UOC, there is another parish and, accordingly, another temple – St. Elijah’s Church: the rector of this community, a local resident, Fr Yuri Zarafutdinov, still defends it from the "transfer". The Regional State Administration has so far refused to re-register this parish.
The last order of the leadership of the regional state administration on the re-registration of UOC parishes was issued on January 14, 2021, and concerned the UOC community in the village of Galуnivka. Since a period of active legal transfer of the parishes of the canonical Church in favour of the OCU in the winter-summer of 2019, registration actions, in fact, confirming the raiding, have been practically not carried out in the region.
As reported, in the Volyn village of Sadiv, OCU activists threaten the priest of the UOC because of the church house.