The OCU has "suspended from ministry" a priest who returned from the schism to the UOC

The head of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the OCU, Feognost Bodoryak, commented on the incident involving Father Vasily Kovtash, who officially announced his return from the OCU to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Bodoryak, the priest had previously allegedly “disappeared from the leadership’s sight,” and it later emerged that he had “illegally crossed the border into Moldova.” This was reported by Vluchno.media.

According to Bodryak’s statement, Father Vasily “served faithfully in the parish of the village of Ringach for nearly two years without causing any complaints.” However, several months ago, contact with the priest was lost: he stopped answering calls and messages from the diocesan administration, ignoring requests regarding administrative matters and documentation.

The situation became clear in early October, when the border service informed Bodoryak of the priest’s alleged illegal border crossing. Later, Kovtash sent a message in which he cited certain “personal matters” that had forced him to leave the parish. Despite a demand from the head of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the OCU to immediately resume his duties, the priest ignored the order.

“The reason for the suspension was the fact that he left his place of ministry and failed to comply with the bishop’s orders, not his public announcement of his transfer to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” — Theognost emphasized. Due to his systematic failure to fulfill his duties and his unauthorized departure from the parish, Vasily Kovtash “was suspended from the priesthood” effective September 28, 2024.

As a reminder, we previously reported that Father Vasily Kovtash, a former cleric of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the UOC, who had previously defected to the schism, publicly repented of his decision to join the OCU and announced his return to the fold of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The cleric offered an official apology to the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Onufry, and to Metropolitan Meletios of Chernivtsi and Bukovina.