Primate awards order to priest of persecuted community of UOC in Ptycha

Archpriest Nikolai Sysoniuk, the former rector of the community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Ptycha of the Dubny district, Rivne region, received a church award – the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, reports the press service of the Rivne Eparchy of the UOC.

By the intercession of Metropolitan Bartholomew of Rivne and Ostroh, the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, awarded Father Nikolai an order on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his service at the Holy Dormition parish.

On July 30, 1971, Archbishop Damian of Volyn and Rivne sent a graduate of the Odessa Theological Seminary, a young priest Nikolai Sysoniuk, to serve at the Dormition Church in the village of Ptycha, where he continues to serve to this day.

On August 12, 2021, on the occasion of the anniversary in the temporary church of the Holy Dormition community, the Dean of the 1st Dubny Deanery Archpriest Nikolai Kirichenko, the hero of the day and the visiting clergy celebrated the Divine Liturgy.

After the festive service, the clergy and believers congratulated Father Nikolai, wishing him to continue to remain a faithful and devoted servant of the Church of Christ.

In 2015, in the village of Ptycha, the first religious pogrom in the history of independent Ukraine, organized by representatives of the UOC-KP and the Right Sector, took place. The believers defended their church for several years, but on April 4, 2019, the OCU raiders cut off the locks on the doors of the sealed church and seized it. The faithful of the UOC won all the trials but still had to pray first in the garage, and then in an equipped house.

Despite many years of pressure, the UOC community in Ptycha survived and remained faithful to the canonical Church. Its former rector, Archpriest Nikolai Sysoniuk, after retirement, continues to serve in the parish.