RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

Ukrainian Orthodox take church building dispute to court

COURT TO DECIDE DISPUTE OVER CHURCH BUILDING BETWEEN UPTs AND UPTsKP IN ROVNO REGION

UNIAN, 12 January 2015

 

The UPTs parish of the church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, which is located in the village of Badivka of Ostrog district, filed suit in court against the the UPTsKP parish.

 

As the website ERVE.UA reported, on 26 December the church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, over which an "interconfessional dispute" has been going on for several months, switched its diocesan affiliation in favor of the Kiev patriarchate, without the necessary documents for doing so.

 

According to a representative of the UPTs parish of the village of Badivka, their church building was seized by force.

 

"We filed a lawsuit in court because the church was seized by force. Although our parish has all the necessary documents for service in the church, we renounced a violent confrontation, because we have enough war in the east. After the seizure of the church we were not allowed to pick up a box with donations and personal effects of the priest. We want to determine whether in those lists that our opponents rely on there are signatures of protestants of the 'New Life' congregation," the resident of Badivka said.

 

In his turn, the dean of the Ostrog district deanery of the UPTsKP diocese of Rovno, Archpriest Yury Lukashik, assured that "UPTsKP has not seized any churches," and the parish itself permitted them to hold a service in their church. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 January 2015)


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