City council grabs the temple from UOC community in Ivano-Frankivsk region

Community of the Transfiguration church of the UOC protects the temple. Photo: youtube.com

The city council of the town of Gorodenka in Ivano-Frankivsk region, headed by the mayor Bohdan Kobylyansky, is taking the St. Elijah home church from the Orthodox community of the UOC, reports First Cossack youtube channel.

Local authorities are doing their best to expel the local community from the St. Elijah church, which was rebuilt by the efforts of caring believers with the blessing of Archbishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia Seraphim. Before that, for several decades, the UOC community in Gorodenka did not have its own church.

On December 19, 2020, on the day of memory of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the first Divine Liturgy was held in the liturgical premises, which alarmed the local authorities and deputies, and at the regular session, which took place on December 28, they harassed the community by issuing an appeal to the residents of the city, which was posted by mayor of the city Bohdan Kobylyansky on his Facebook page on January 3.

The deputies called on the residents of Gorodenka not to attend services in the Orthodox home church, accusing the UOC of all sorts of "sins": supporting separatist military formations, lack of sympathy for the victims of the Holodomor, prayer for the Russian army. These accusations are untrue and have been refuted more than once. The deputies also accused the UOC of condemning the fratricidal war in eastern Ukraine.

As the UOJ previously reported, the first church of the UOC was opened in Gorodenka since the 90s.

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