54 UPTsMP PARISHES IN TERNOPOL REGION WANT TO TRANSFER INTO UPTsKP
According to the chief of public security of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the province
Because of Russian armed aggression, more and more parishes in the Ternopol region are leaving UPTsMP and transferring into the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate (UPTsKP).
However, these processes do not always proceed peacefully, the website 0352.ua reports.
On the weekend, law enforcement agencies were present at meetings of parishes in the villages of Bashuki, Kulikov, and Kolosova of the Kremenets district.
Two parishes adopted the decision to exit from under the wing of the Moscow church.
"In the first two villages, the meetings proceeded without conflict. There was a clear majority of those who advocated for the decision to transfer into the UPTsKP, by a proportion of 90% to 10%. But in Kolosova everything took place in raised voices, with disputes. But it did not come to blows and we guaranteed public order. There the decision was made to create a commission which is supposed to work out a compromise decision with representatives of the government. Now the parish there is divided in a proportion of 60% to 40%, but the majority still wants to transfer from UPTsMP into UPTsKP," the chief of police for public security of the directorate of MVD of Ukraine in the province, Ruslan Balyk, explained.
According to his information, another 54
parishes in the Shumsk district intend to transfer to the Kiev
patriarchate. In order to prevent conflicts, police officers will
be sent to the meetings of the parishes to maintain order. (tr. by
PDS, posted 1 May 2015)
WOMEN DRIVE MILITANTS OF RIGHT SECTOR OUT OF VILLAGE IN TERNOPOL PROVINCE
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 30 April 2015
On the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, women in Ternopol province drove out of their village the Right Sector that had come to seize a local church.
The press service of the Ternopol diocese reported that on 26 April, schismatics tried to commit several provocations in the region.
In particular, in the village of Kolosova of Kremenets district, outsiders arrived with priests of UPTsKP. As usual, this time the schismatics were accompanied by troops of the Right Sector (around 60 persons). The provocateurs started to shout insults against local parishioners of UPTs and to intimidate them. However, representatives of the Kolosova UPTs parish declared that no types of threats would force them to allow the church, which they had built with their own hands, to be taken away by imposters from the so-called Kiev patriarchate.
By prayer and protest they drove the barn-stormers from the UPTsKP from the village, and the troops of Right Sector quickly ran after them. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 May 2015)
UPTs CLAIMS POLICE OF TERNOPOL REGION CAUGHT RISU WEBSITE IN LIE
On 28 April, the website of the Religious News Service of Ukraine [RISU: Religiozno-Informatsionnaia Sluzhba Ukrainy], which is controlled by Greek Catholics and whose editorial office is maintained at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lvov, hastened to disseminate a pseudo-sensation that supposedly 54 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Shumsk district of Ternopol province alone wish to transfer into the UPTsKP.
The official website of UPTs reported that RISU cites the chief of police of public security of the directorate of MVD of Ukraine for Ternopol province, Ruslan Balyk.
Readers were surprised by the strange statistic, since in all six deaneries of the Ternopol diocese of UPTs there are 120 parishes, and half of them turn out to be in just one district, the Shumsk district.
Journalists of the Information Department [of UPTsMP—tr.] turned for comment to Ruslan Balyk, who reported that he never had stated for news media that supposedly 54 parishes of UPTs in the Shumsk area want to change jurisdiction.
On 27 April, during a press conference, he reported that in the Kremenets and Shumsk districts there are 54 UPTs parishes in all.
RISU's report displeased him personally.
Ruslan Balyk described how in cases of the outbreak of religious tension in various villages of the Ternopol region, the provincial police always keep the situation under control and do not permit provocations.
To the inquiry by the UPTs Information Department regarding the participation of Right Sector in such conflicts, the chief of police for public security noted that representatives of this organization have made assaults in different residential areas in which they do not reside for destabilizing the interconfessional situation within them.
The Religious News Service of Ukraine (RISU) has often reported the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in a prejudicial manner and it also has resorted to fantasies and presentation of distorted information, as in the case described here. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 May 2015)
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