RSA head of Murovanye Kurilovtsy in Vinnitsa region campaigns for OCU

Sergei Ladan, head of Murovanye Kurilovtsy district of Vinnitsa region

On January 14, in the village of Kotiuzhany, Murovanye Kurilovtsy district of Vinnitsa region, there was a reporting meeting of the village (up to 100 people), convened on the initiative of the chairman of the village council Nikolai Arnaut. The meeting was attended by the RSA head of Murovanye Kurilovtsy Sergei Ladan, the head of the village council and his wife – a director of the local school Anna Arnaut. This is reported by the UOJ correspondent.

After the report at the meeting held at the local club, head of the RSA Sergei Ladan took the floor and informed the attendees that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy is not the Church, “it zombies people and is subordinate to Russia.” Other workers of the District State Administration and the village council told the audience that "the Primate of the UOC is a separatist and everything is separatist there."

Despite the obvious agitation against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the UOC community of St. Nicholas church was not invited to the meeting, nor was its long-time rector, protopriest Ioann Pecheniuk. Head of RGA Ladan handed over leaflets to all those present in which it was stated about "the dependence of the UOC on Moscow."

On January 12, in this village, there were collected signatures for the transfer to the OCU by deception. Activists walked around the village and informed people that the priest also supports the new Church, therefore some villagers undersigned.

In fact, the religious community of the temple and its rector Protopriest Ioann strongly opposed the transition to schism. The initiator of the collection of such signatures was Anna Arnaut, school director in Kotiuzhany village.

Thus, the lead center of all processes for the transfer of the UOC community in vlg. Kotiuzhany are officials and functionaries who have nothing to do with the Orthodox community, or even the Orthodox Church as a whole. The head of the village council, Nikolay Arnaut, and his wife Anna Arnaut are Catholics, as they openly declare about their confession. Therefore, the villagers are perplexed about such an active incursion of representatives of local authorities in the affairs of the Orthodox community.

The main initiator of this action, according to the residents of Kotiuzhany, is Sergey Ladan, head of Murovanye Kurilovtsy District State Administration, who puts pressure on the heads of village councils and interferes in the affairs of religious communities.

Recall, on January 13, with the participation of the village head Petro Podruchny, proponents of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine actually took over the St. Nicholas temple of the UOC in the village of Vorsovka, Malin district, Zhitomir region.

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