Village in Dnepropetrovsk Region defends its canonical Orthodox jurisdiction
September 15, 2015. A meeting was organised by a local farmer in the village of Chumaki, Dnepropetrovsk Region (Ukraine) as reports pravoslavie.ru. He tried to cause a division in the community by preventing people going to the canonical Church under Moscow Patriarchate according to the testimony of Aleksandr Ponomarenko, the head of the Zheltovodsk Deanery. The Orthodox Christians of the village united to support a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by refusing to go over to the self-proclaimed “Kiev Patriarchate.”
The looming schism resulted in the reconciliation of the Orthodox Christians, who were united by father Ioann, the senior priest of a local church, who has a spotless reputation among his flock. That decision played the important role and members of the village community decided to reconcile in church during a divine service.
It is known that the local administration and an influential businessman began the process of transferring the community to the “Kiev Patriarchate.”