A hierarch of the Orthodox Church of Moldova was blocked in a church that the Metropolitanate of Bessarabia is trying to seize

Archbishop Petr, head of the Ungheni and Nisporeni diocese of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, was blocked inside the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Moldovan village of Dereneu, while outside the building is surrounded by a reinforced police cordon. The incident occurred against the backdrop of a decision by Moldova’s Supreme Court of Justice that transferred ownership of the church to the religious community of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church of the Romanian Orthodox Church, to which the church had not previously belonged.

According to the RIA Novosti news agency, citing a representative of the diocese, the bishop is inside the temple with the doors closed and intends to pray until the «lawlessness» stops. The Facebook page of the Ungheni and Nisporeni diocese* also posted a message calling on the faithful to pray for the archbishop and parishioners outside the temple. Law enforcement forces outside were further reinforced.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of Moldova on the eve recognized the ownership of the temple, dating back to the end of the XVIII century, for the Metropolis of Bessarabia. Earlier, the Moldovan Interior Ministry’s Main Police Department informed about the detention of six people, including the head of Dereneu village and the abbot’s lawyer, in connection with the incident at the church. The detentions took place after a group of believers broke through the police cordon and managed to pass inside the church.

The events around the temple have been developing for some time. on January 31, rector Alexander Popa and his family blocked the church from the inside, trying to prevent its transfer to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, after which local authorities set up a police cordon at the entrance. on February 8, Bishop Peter and a group of parishioners were unable to get into the church, as a result of which the liturgy was served in the church yard. However, on Tuesday evening, the villagers managed to break through the cordon and hold the service inside the church.

We will remind, earlier we reported about the scandal around the Orthodox Church in Moldova: the leaders of the Party of Socialists of Moldova accused the current authorities of using administrative resources and police to put pressure on the Orthodox communities. The situation, they said, resembles the «Ukrainian scenario» of state intervention aimed at transferring parishes from the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Moldova to the control of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, which is subordinate to the Romanian Patriarchate. Particular outrage was caused by an incident in the village of Dereneu, where a priest and his family were forced to barricade themselves in the church.