Krements bureaucrats are demanding the cupola demolition of an Orthodox Cathedral

January 11, 2017 – Bureaucrats of the Krements city council are demanding the demolition of the cupola at the Saint-Nicholas Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), located in the Ternopol oblast. This is despite the fact that the restoration was agreed upon with the Rector of the Krements-Pochaevsky historic-cultural sanctuary, according to a correspondent from the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ).

The sudden rise of excessive government monitoring of the roof tower restoration works was reported by some Facebook users. Congregation members have been raising funds for the restoration of the cupola for several years due to its deterioration.

The Rector of the Saint-Nicholas Cathedral of the UOC-MP church in the city of Krements of the Ternopol oblast, Archpriest Vasily Vosnyuk, has reported the situation to the UOJ. According to him, all restoration works of the cupola were agreed upon with the administration of the Kremets-Pochaevsky government-controlled historic-cultural sanctuary.

He added that any arbitrary work on the monument, given for use to the Orthodox parish, was never discussed. “We agreed on the city’s façade permit directly on the spot and reported the urgent restoration need to the line ministry”, said the Rector of the Cathedral.

The parish is currently awaiting the final approval of the city’s façade permit. Before submitting the restoration request to the city council, the parish community has signaled the urgency for the work due to the cupola’s critical deteriorating state. They have provided evidence to the competent authorities that any further delays are unacceptable.

According to the Archpriest Vasily, none of the Kremets bureaucrats has contacted him so far. He was quite surprised to learn of the verbal accusations presented against him in one of the Kremets City council meetings. Accusations against him began to spread.

There has been an increasing amount of claims from the authorities directed against the property owned by the UOC-MP. According to the UOJ, over the course of 2016, the authorities of the Ivanichevsky cultural department of the Volyn oblast have repeatedly filed unfounded claims to the Rector of the seized UOC church in the village of Gribovitsa. (please see second link below for more information).

He was accused of the fact that he supposedly changed the front view of the church arbitrarily– the architectural monument, initiating a change of windows before the chapel was seized by the Kiev patriarchate. The fact that the Rector had all the necessary permits to initiate the necessary repairs concerned the authorities very little. They were aiming at breaking the protector contract with the UOC parish.

In the village of Vorotnov in the Lutsk region, the Kiev Patriarchate has arbitrarily refurbished the cupola that they seized in the 1990’s from the Cathedral of the Birth of the Mother of God. Again, this did not stir much interest from the local authorities.

Two more churches, captured by the Kiev Patriarchate in the villages of Ugrinov and Pechihvosty, have been literally mutilated and refurbished by the raiders to a point that the churches were not recognizable anymore. Yet again, not much attention was accorded by the local authorities.

Sources

http://uoj.org.ua/novosti/sobytiya/chinovniki-krementsa-trebuyut-demontirovat-kupol-kafedralnogo-sobora-upts

http://uoj.org.ua/publikatsii/chastnoe-rassledovanie/kak-mestnaya-vlast-v-gribovitse-podstavlyaet-svyashchennika-upts-sobstvennoe-rassledovanie?sphrase_id=24720

http://uoj.org.ua/novosti/sobytiya/na-volyni-upts-kp-snova-razrushaet-pamyatnik-arkhitektury-?sphrase_id=24722

http://uoj.org.ua/novosti/sobytiya/na-volyni-kievskiy-patriarkhat-razoril-eshche-odin-khram-?sphrase_id=24721