In Volyn, a priest who converted to the OCU celebrated his patron saint's day with the exarch of Phanar and Roman Catholics

On July 22, 2025, religious events dedicated to the “new” day of remembrance of St. Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles, took place in the city of Lutsk. In the church of the same name, built in one of the microdistricts of the regional center of the Volyn region, religious services were held on the occasion of the patronal feast. The rector of the aforementioned church is the former clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Alexander Kolb, who defected to the schism and joined the OCU. It is noteworthy that the celebrations were attended by the scandalous head of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, Mykhailo Zinkevych, the exarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine, Mykhailo Anishchenko, as well as numerous high-ranking representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. This was reported on the official website of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU.

It is reported that the religious events were attended by the exarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine, Bishop Mykhailo of Komansk, the head of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, Mykhailo Zinkevych, the rector of the parish, Oleksandr Kolb, and others. In addition, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, including Archbishop Cardinal Paulo César Costa of Brazil and Bishop Vitaliy Skomarovsky of Lutsk, congratulated the community on the feast day. At the end of the celebration, Zinkevych presented the Latins with an icon of the Volyn Mother of God.

We previously reported that Mykhailo Zinkevych once again ignored his boss, Epiphany Dumenko. On July 15, when all the officials of the OCU, led by Dumenko, celebrated the Day of Statehood (as the New Style Baptism of Rus is now called) in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which was taken away from the UOC, Zinkevich held his own celebration. Together with Roman Catholics and Uniates, he held religious services on the ruins of the oldest Orthodox church in Lutsk in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian.