Korolevka, Ukraine, April 8, 2019
Photo: news.church.ua
Unknown assailants robbed and desecrated the Church of St. Nicholas in the Ukrainian village of Korolevka in the Zhytomyr Province on the night of the great feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Photo: news.church.ua The crime was discovered by a parishioner who arrived on the day of the feast to get things ready for the festive Divine Liturgy. The thieves had broken a window and entered into the altar of the St. Nicholas Church.
“When I arrived, I found a huge mess in the altar—glass on the floor from the broken window the robbers had climbed through, everything was turned over—books thrown everywhere on the kliros, boxes were opened. They found some money and took it, they stole Communion wine, two copies of the Apostol,” said the rector Fr. Alexander Garaschuk.
Police were called to the scene and conducted an investigation and took a statement from the rector.
“Even more people came today than usual. They had to wait and hour and a half or two hours while the police processed everything and we picked everything up. Despite all that, we served Liturgy and a Moleben of Thanksgiving…” Fr. Alexander said, noting that the faithful were quite upset by the sacrilege committed by the vandals on such a holy day.
Photo: news.church.ua
In November, the Diocesan Council of the Zhytomyr Diocese unanimously declared its support for the canonical Church and its primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. The clergy again unanimously expressed their support at their general diocesan meeting in late December.
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