orthodoxrights.org

September 22, 2015. The incident happened on the eve when believers of the canonical Church celebrated the Nativity of the Mother of God near St. George Church in the village of Katerinovka in the Ternopol Region. The Liturgy was celebrated in the open air as followers of the self-proclaimed “Kiev Patriarchate” had barricaded the church earlier, as reports UOC press service.

The members of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate seized the church under jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate with the support of The Right Sector militants. They tried to chase away old people and children who prayed at the churchyard. Later, about 3 p.m., unidentified people penetrated into the church through the side door and broke open the central doors, and then representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate came into the church. The believers of the canonical church (UOC) could not enter the church as fellows with stripes of the Right Sector blocked their way.

According to the report of the UOC, when representatives of the community asked to give them way to the church in order to take holy things from it, militants of the Ternopol-2 battalion of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine started beating believers of the Moscow Patriarchate severely. The result of the militants’ condescending action was 15 people to be traumatized, one person to be hospitalized with severe injuries and some others to have their limbs broken.

The Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church metropolitain of Kiev and all Ukraine Onuphry sent a letter to the President of Ukraine P.Poroshenko in connection with these events.

Video document from UOC press service