An application fragment of Acheiropaeic image church beneficiary in Hodosy village to the prosecutor of Rivne oblast
«…On September 20th 2014 I was told there would be a meeting of villagers at 16.00 with the agenda as follows: transfer of our parish to the Kyiv Patriarchy… After the moleben (the prayer service) at 16.00 we began the night vigil at which 50 parishioners gathered. Meanwhile behind the church fence the villagers got together to make for the meeting in the eastern part of the village. After a while several microbuses and cars drove up to the church with old and young people dressed in camouflage suits – from “Pravyi Sektor” and “Svoboda”. On noticing that, we went inside the church and locked the door. Hardly had we done it when they started to force the door open, cut off the locks with angle grinders and began to drive the congregation out of the building swearing and yelling. Those who showed resistance were pulled out, beaten and struck with tear gas. Following this “riot” the KP priests entered the church and started their prayer service. All our reports to the militia and state bodies regarding the incident yielded no results. Though our parish has all valid juridical documents, no one even paid attention to that. The so-called gathering of the villagers (local villagers made up just to 20%) was supervised by the head of Rivne rayon state administration and law enforcement agencies. The Kyiv Patriarchy assures it has nothing to do with the illegal seizure of the church but it’s not true because their bishopric secretary Mr. Luchanin pulled our priests out of the church, beat and pushed them. He was stopped personally by the dean archpriest father Valeriy…In view of this dishonourable action the village community inquires if we actually live in a sovereign, independent, democratic country and – what’s most crucial – the country with the rule of law?…”
NGO Forpost invites to cooperation all individuals concerned with obtaining verified information about the ongoing situation in Ukraine caused by persecutions of Orthodox Christians of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
We request everybody to give the best possible coverage of true positions within this discourse and offer the willing human rights watchdogs as well as other organizations and communities to contribute to cooperation in the sphere of rights and freedoms defense in Ukraine. Our capabilities lie in our determination to highlight developments in Ukraine and provide a true verified law-related evaluation for them based on the available evidence of witnesses as well as in-depth analysis of actions taken by the state bodies concerning elimination and prevention of violation of the rule of law by virtue of primary monitoring, in particular.
In August 2015, the UOC community decided to build a churchon a land plot allocated by one of the parishioners.On the same site an Orthodox cross was raised. But the head of Shpaniv village council initiated verification of the land by the inspection bodies. Subsequently, the believer was fined and obliged to personally demolish the cross which had been put up.
In October 2015, the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church acquireda new land plot in vlg. Khodosy and started the construction of an Orthodox church.
To learn more about religious freedom infringements committed against the UOC believers you are encouraged to consult our detailed reports and statements:
- Collection of Information Materials and Documents “Facts, Evidence and Claims Regarding Violations of the Rights of Believers and Religious Organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2014-2016”.
- Written Statement of the NGO “Public Advocacy” within the United Nations 28th Universal Periodic Review on Ukraine.
- Written Statement of the NGO “Public Advocacy” on the violations against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within the United Nations 37-th Regular Session.
- Statement of the NGO “Public Advocacy”