In Vinnytsia region, OCU supporters demand access to church belonging to UOC

In the village of Tomashpil, Vinnytsia region, a conflict between the religious communities of the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has escalated over the right to use a local church. Supporters of the OCU, who have been holding religious events in a former school building for five years, demand that they be given the opportunity to take turns praying in the Holy Dormition Church, which legally belongs to the UOC community. In turn, the UOC community opposes this decision. The regional authorities see three ways to resolve the situation: litigation, a “voluntary” change of jurisdiction by the UOC community, or alternate services.

According to Suspilne Vinnytsia, the OCU community in Tomashpol received the premises of a former school by the decision of local authorities after the organization’s supporters expressed a desire to pray in Ukrainian. According to the rector of the OCU community, Mykhailo Vasyliuk, many of his current parishioners used to attend the Holy Dormition Church and put their hearts and souls into it. “They went there at one time, they decorated this church, they prayed in that church, they left a part of their souls there,” the priest said.

Representatives of the OCU believe that one of the ways out of the situation could be alternate services. Mykhailo Vasyliuk emphasizes that this is especially easy to organize now that the OCU has switched to the New Julian calendar, while the UOC adheres to the old style. The difference of 13 days, in his opinion, makes it possible to easily coordinate the schedule of services, for example, for Christmas, which one community celebrates on December 25, and the other on January 7.

At the same time, Archpriest Mykhailo Krychkovsky, rector of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, which belongs to the UOC, is categorically against sharing. “Let them unite with us… They took a beautiful room in the school. The OCU pray, we have no problems with them. No one interferes with them,” he said. The parishioners of the UOC also see no reason for change and fear “unrest” in the village.

The Regional Department for Nationalities and Religions explained that the Holy Dormition Church was transferred to the ownership of the UOC religious community by order of the head of the regional administration in 2016. According to the acting head of the department, Yulia Mandryka, only a court can cancel this order. Thus, the OCU community has the right to file a lawsuit to invalidate the document. In addition, there are two other options: the UOC community may decide at a general meeting to change its subordination and move to the OCU, or the situation may change in the event of a court decision to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC in Ukraine, which will affect all its subordinate structures.

Earlier, we reported that the situation around the Transfiguration Church of the UOC in the village of Moshny, Cherkasy region, had escalated. After the seizure of the shrine by supporters of the OCU, local authorities sealed the church , which led to an internal conflict between different groups of raiders who cannot share control over the seized property.