Representatives of the Diocese of Khust of the UOC-MP have beaten a person who, together with the community, expressed a desire to join the canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
"This is what the ROC does on the territory of Ukraine. So, brothers and sisters, think if you care where to go to Church...", – wrote the priest of the Diocese of Donetsk of the OCU Yuriy Vig in Facebook, posting a video in which an elderly woman talks about lawlessness.
The information was also confirmed by the Bishop of the OCU, Varsonofy (Rudnyk).
The woman said that in the morning she went to the Church, where three foreign priests of the Moscow Patriarchate were standing at the gate, who did not let her into the Church. She tried to enter, but the spiritual fathers of the ROC pressed the gate upon the elderly woman's hand. As a result, she escaped with a bruised limb.
The faithful of the UOC-MP shouted to the woman “You are not needed here”.
Fr Viktor Bilan, Dean of the Rakhiv deanery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, shared it with Spiritual Front of Ukraine.
The Orthodox community in Dilove village in the Rakhiv district in January-February 2019 voted for the transition from the ROC to the OCU and registered their new community, but this was not accepted by the local priest and a smaller part of those who were against the transition.
“Although the courts for the transfer of property were won, the faithful of the Moscow Church block the entrance to the Church and do not allow those who made efforts to build the temple there. The priest himself begged on his knees not to be expelled and asked the community to leave him until Easter. After Easter, the ROC priest said that he did not say this,” the father says.
Believers of the UOC-MP filed an appeal to the court and did not allow anyone to enter the Church. Supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate got rid of all the villages and started pushing people out of the courtyard.