BELIEVERS IN DONBASS DID NOT LET SCHISMATICS SEIZE THEIR CHURCH
Interfax-Religiia, 22 October 2015
Representatives of the self-proclaimed Kiev patriarchate tried to seize a church building in the village of Raigorodka of the Novoaidar district of Luhansk province.
During a certain period, a "priest" of the schismatics collected signatures supposedly for the opening of a new church without explaining which confession it would belong to. A few days ago a vehicle with servicemen drove up to the church and one of them reported that soon a "bishop" of the Kiev patriarchate would arrive," the press service of the Luhansk diocese reports.
After arriving at the site, the "bishop" appealed to the parishioners' signatures which, he said, supposedly were asking to transfer into the jurisdiction of the Kiev patriarchate.
"These words evoked confusion among the audience, since many thought that they were simply giving their consent to the opening of a new church in the village and nobody even suspected a transfer into the KP. There was almost nobody who had been among the signers, and those he did sign without understanding asked for cancellation. The 'bishop' departed with nothing," the report says.
As noted in the diocese, this incident refutes the arguments spread by the schismatics that parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have supposedly transferred into the Kiev patriarchate because of the unpatriotic position of the UPTs clergy.
"Hiding behind this lie, with deception and the use of force, schismatics have seized buildings of our church in western Ukraine, and they now are trying to do this in the east of Ukraine," the report says. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 October 2015)
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