UKRAINIAN COURTS RULE SEIZURES OF UPTs CHURCHES ILLEGAL
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 26 November 2015
In November, courts in Ternopol and Rovno provinces made a number of decisions by which seizures of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by representatives of the Kiev patriarchate were ruled to be illegal.
On 24 November, the Ternopol appellate court ordered the Kremenets district court to reopen proceedings in the case for finding invalid a decision of a meeting of the rural parish of the village of Bashuki regarding the transfer of the church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church consecrated to the Holy Archangel Michael to the UPTsKP and the reregistration of the parish's charter.
We recall that the church in the village of Bashuki was seized on 14 June by schismatics with the support of radicals. At the same time the decision of the UPTs parish was replaced by a decision of the village society. In its turn, the Kremenets district court refused UPTs believers a review of the case regarding the seizure of their church on the basis that the UPTs parish no longer existed and therefore they could not file a lawsuit.
The invalidated protocol was registered by the Ternopol provincial administration with changes in the charter of the UPTs parish on 28 August.
On the next day, 25 November, the Kremenets district court granted the lawsuit of the UPTs Orthodox parish of the village of Kolosova invalidating the protocol of the meeting by which the Ternopol administration registered the parish of the Kiev patriarchate and inserted changes into the charter of the UPTs parish. Thereby the decision of the Ternopol provincial state administration of 28 August was cancelled.
We recall that on 26 August the Kremenets district court forbade the Ternopol provincial administration "to adopt a decision about registration of a new edition of the charter of the religious parish 'Parish of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian' of the village of Kolosova." But despite the prohibition, on 28 August the administration of the Ternopol province signed an order introducting changes into said charter.
As reported earlier by the Information Department of the UPTs, on 24 November by its decision the Rovno district court rejected the lawsuit of the parish of the Kiev patriarchate regarding transfer of the church of the Holy Pokrov in the village of Ryasniki of Goshchansk district in Rovno province for alternating use. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 November 2015)
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