Sevastopol City Council Refused to Allocate Land Plot for Monastery of the Kyivan Patriarchate
SEVASTOPOL – The Sevastopol City Council refused to allocate a land plot of 0.61 hectares in the village of Morozivka for the construction of a monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP). Only four deputies voted for it, reports “Religion in Ukraine.”
According to the report, as he called on his colleagues not to vote for the allocation of land, a deputy Artem Maltsev noted that Ukraine’s former President Leonid Kuchma once refused to pass to the UOC-KP St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Khersones and that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow did not meet with Patriarch Filaret during his visit to Kyiv.
“It is a schismatic church established to bring discord among the Orthodox Slavs. Those who came to us and marched in masks for Tiahnybok, those who support OUN-UPA, pray in these churches,” stressed Maltsev.
He stressed that the existing church of the UOC-KP in Morozivka was built in violation of the law as the land was allocated for the construction of a residential house.
The representative of the Crimean Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Father Serhii, expressed gratitude to the deputies of the city council for their refusal to allocate the land plot for the construction of the monastery of the UOC-KP.
“The Kyivan Patriarchate has a certain legal status. Therefore, it is possible they will try again. But I wish to stress that autocephaly and schism are not typical of Sevastopol. Sevastopol has always been outside the schism. I believe that the deputies of the city council will pass the right decision,” summed up the priest.
