Rivne City Council refused to allocate land for the construction of a OCU church

For the fourth consecutive year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) community in Rivne has been unsuccessfully seeking a land plot to build a new church. After being forced to vacate their previous building in the city center, parishioners have been renting a temporary space. However, once again, the city council’s decision did not favor the OCU faithful, according to Rivne Vechirnie.

The parish wanted to construct a new church on a 0.2-hectare vacant lot on Mariupol Defenders Street, now surrounded by new apartment buildings. In an effort to persuade the council members, the parish priest attended the city council session together with several parishioners.

Parish head Ivan Polianytsia explained that the community previously belonged to the Autocephalous Church and was based at Slovatskoho Street, 12. Following a legal dispute with a neighbor, the parish was forced to leave. In 2021, they applied to the city for a plot on what was then Kostromska Street (now Mariupol Defenders Street). The land commission initially approved the location, but council members advised them to update their charter documents due to the church’s transition to the jurisdiction of the OCU.

In 2024, the parish officially joined the OCU. Despite this, during the latest city council session, the initiative did not gain enough votes — only 12 deputies voted in favor.

It is also worth noting that a temporary oversight commission of the Volyn Regional Council recently held another meeting regarding the enforcement of a regional ban on the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate. The commission discussed methods of evicting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from its religious properties — namely, the Dormition Cathedral complex of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Diocese and the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kamin-Kashyrskyi. Council members concluded that, since the UOC refuses to vacate the premises voluntarily, force may be necessary.