FIRST PARISH OF MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE FROM ODESSA OBLAST TRANSFERS INTO ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE
The first Orthodox parish of Odesa oblast that decided to transfer from the Moscow patriarchate into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU), which recently received autocephaly, were parishioners of the church of St. Dimitry of the village of Puzhaikovo of the Balta district. This was reported by Dumskaia.
As a local resident, Viktor Soroka, the father of one of the Ukrainian sailors languishing in captivity, explained, the decision was made back on Christmas, 7 January.
"After the liturgy, a meeting was held and we began to collect signatures among parishioners. There now are more than 300 of them and in another couple of days there will be 500-600. This is the situation: 90% of parishioners are for transfer into the Ukrainian church. Today the dean of the Moscow patriarchate came to us and explained that we are moving into submission to the Turks and that we should not do this. But the people did not agree with his arguments," Viktor Soroka told Dumskaia.
Now the parishioners are awaiting an order from Metropolitan Epifany and the appointment of a priest in their parish. It is expected that this can occur by next week. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 January 2019)
PRIEST IN VOLYN TRANSFERS INTO PTsU ALONG WITH PARISH
The parish of the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God of the village of Novostav on 13 January held a meeting during which it was decided to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU).
The voting occurred by means of show of hands and of those in attendance, nobody spoke in opposition and only three members abstained. A participant in the meeting, chorister Maria Maclichuk, described this for Raion.Gorokhiv.
"It was not difficult for us to make this decision; after all, for a long time we have dreamed about our own canonical church. In our church the liturgy has been in the Ukrainian language for a long time and we have had all the prayer books and other literature needed for the divine liturgy for a long time. Before conducting the meeting we knew that people supported our transfer; after all during the holidays the choir went caroling and we collected signatures of the parish," Maria Maslichuk explained.
The rector of the church, Father Viktor Pavlenko, supported the decision of his parish.
"The opinion of our priest was important to us; after all Father Viktor has prayed for us for many years. We did not want for us to have disputes within the church. Everything proceeded peacefully and joyfully," Maria Maslichuk added.
In the near future, the parish will send to the bishops of the UPTsMP, Nafanail, and of the PTsU, Mikhail, a report about its decision. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 January 2019)
FIRST UPTsMP PARISH IN SOUTH OF UKRAINE TRANSFERS INTO PTsU
In Mykolaiv oblast a religious parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate transferred into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. This was reported by a priest of the cathedral church of the Kasperov Icon of the Mother of God in Mykolaiv, Alexander Tsypliak, on Facebook, Fokus reports.
He said that the decision about the transfer into the local church was made by the parish of the village of Timiriazevka at a meeting on 11 January. The rector of the church will be Father Andrei Borsuk. "It is finished! The parish of Timiriazevka is PTsU," Tsypliak wrote.
We note that the parish of the village of Timiriazevka is the first in the south of Ukraine to transfer from the UPTsMP into the PTsU. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 January 2019)
CLERGY AND FLOCK OF ST. NICHOLAS-DORMITION CATHEDRAL IN KOLOMYIA JOIN PTsU
In Kolomyia of Ivano-Frankovsk oblast, the parish of the St. Nicholas-Dormition cathedral of the UPTsMP, on Lesia Ukrainka blvd., transferred into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on 13 January. This was reported by Dzerkalo Media.
As the publication notes, during the divine liturgy in the St. Nicholas-Dormition cathedral, which belonged to the Moscow patriarchate, they prayed for Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew and Metropolitan of Kiev Epifany, and not for Kirill and Onufrey, as usual.
We recall that this is now the second parish in Ciscarpathia that left the UPTsMP and joined the PTsU. On the same day, but a bit earlier, the religious parish of the UPTsMP of the village of Pokhovka in Bogorodchany district of Ivano-Frankovsk oblast transferred into the PTsU. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 January 2019)
SIXTH PARISH IN LVOV OBLAST LEAVES UPTsMP
The parish of the UPTsMP church in the village of Shandrovets of Turka district on Sunday, 13 January, made the decision to transfer into the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. This was reported on his Facebook page by the head of the Turka district state administration, Alexander Labetsky, Zakhid.net reports.
"I congratulate the church community of the village of Shandrovets of Turka district on making the decision for transfer into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Thank you to all residents of the village for their courage and bravery," Labetsky wrote.
The Shandrovets parish of the UPTsMP became the sixth in Lvov oblast to make the decision to transfer into the PTsU. Earlier such decisions were already agreed to by the largest church of the UPTsMP in the Lvov region, the church of Peter and Paul in Zhovkva, and also UPTsMP churches in the villages of Peschany, Verchany, and Kariv and in the city of Ugnev. There are a total of 60 parishes of the UPTsMP in the Lvov region; six of them remain in the Turka district.
We add that the wooden church of St. John the Baptist in the village of Shandrovets was built in 1924 on the site of an older church building. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 January 2019)
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