Kyiv Patriarchate takeover attempt of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church community
February 15, 2016. In the village Ozertsy, Gorokhovsky district of Volyn region, the priest of the Kyiv Patriarchate launched a campaign for the conversion to the Kyiv Patriarchate and tried to organize a gathering of villagers for the “conversion” as reports the Union of the Orthodox Journalists.
Among the arguments of the activists of the Kyiv Patriarchate against community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC MP) community were helding services in Church Slavonic language and allegedly “money transactions to Moscow.”
“All those talks about money transactions to Moscow are nonsense and the money is probably not even getting through to Lutsk (editor’s note: the administrative center of Volyn region) but it doesn’t prove anything, we don’t sing in Turkish”, – the chorus girl of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church community Tatyana Sheremet commented on the claims of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
Supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate suggested that the prior of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church community should be under the Kyiv Patriarchate’s jurisdiction. Among those who support the idea of conversion to the Kyiv Patriarchate is the daughter of the former head of the collective farm.
“No one has claims against me in the village, though they are suggesting that
I should convert to the Kyiv Patriarchate, otherwise they will take another measures,” – said Archpriest Mikhail Kurpil.
On Sunday some residents of the village planned gatherings near the church to attempt its conversion to the Kyiv Patriarchate. However, they found a common language with the villagers supporting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and went home after the Sunday service. Only a few of the Kyiv Patriarchate activists together with fellow believers that were brought to the village from another parts of Ukraine organized one more prayer outdoors.
It is to be recalled that usually after the gathering of the villagers the followers of the Kyiv Patriarchate make an attempt to take over the church instead of the peaceful gathering of the religious community.
Video document from the Union of the Orthodox Journalists