In Kotiuzhiny Kiev Patriarchate robs church house of UOC community

On August 22, representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate robbed a church house in the village of Kotiuzhiny in the Ternopol region, where the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church performed divine services after the seizure of their church, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

In the evening, a resident of the village of Kotiuzhiny found that the church house, in which the believers of the UOC prayed, had been robbed.

"Everything had been taken out of the room, where we have prayed for the last six months, – the throne, the icons thrown out, the curtains taken off," – said the rector of the religious community of the Church of the First Martyr Stephen, Archpriest Alexander Kantitsky. "We were actually deprived of the place of worship, and the home church was desecrated."

Father Alexander reported that the vandals had entered the premises from the entrance, which the UOC community has recently provided for the clerk of the UOC-KP. "On our side of the house, the locks are now filled with an unknown substance, in addition, the door is blocked from the inside," he notes.

"We'll call a police squad. They should initiate criminal proceedings in the case of burglary," said the priest.

On February 11, the Kiev Patriarchate, with the support of the radicals from the "Right Sector", seized the church of the religious community of the First Martyr Stephen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Kotiuzhiny of the Zbarazh region, Ternopol region. The community of the UOC is currently holding divine services in a church house.