In Yasinia, second UOC parish builds a temple instead of the OCU-seized one

Consecration of the foundation for the church of the UOC in Yasinia. Photo: UOJ

On May 22, 2021, in Yasinia town (Plitovaty village) of the Rakhiv district of the Transcarpathian region, a ready-made foundation was consecrated, on which a new UOC temple will be erected instead of the one seized by the OCU raiders. The rite of consecration of the future church of the Savior Transfiguration was performed by Metropolitan Mark (Petrovtsy) of Khust and Vinogradovo, the UOJ correspondent reports.

In order for the community to be able to build, it had to purchase a new plot: the local authorities did not allow the privatization of land to be completed, which one of the local families wanted to donate for construction. In 2019, at a session of the village council, adjacent to the village of Yasinia, to which this site belonged, the deputies blocked the process of its privatization. The community, which had already collected funds and materials for the construction of a new church, had to find land.

As the UOJ reported, the Transfiguration community of the UOC in the village of Yasinya/Plitovaty turned out to be one of the targets of the raider actions of the OCU in the Yasinia deanery of the Khust diocese of the UOC in January-February 2019. “Bishop” of the UAOC/OCU Viktor Bed’ appointed a new “rector” here, while the UOC community was forced to go to worship in the church house where its priest lived.

Later, this property was also taken away from the community, and the legal entity was re-registered in favor of the OCU.

Nevertheless, a significant part of the parishioners, along with the rector, remained faithful to the canonical UOC, and the services were transferred to a private territory in a small chapel. The raiders did not allow people to serve in peace here either: the priest was blocked off the road, and the parishioners were threatened.

Despite the opposition from the raiders of the OCU, in December 2020, a new temple was consecrated in the Yasinia deanery, also built instead of the one transferred to a new church structure – in the village of Kevelev. The litigation of the third parish in the village of Lopushanka continues.

Earlier in Pogreby village, the UOC Chancellor laid a capsule in the temple of the persecuted community under construction. 

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