Ukrainian community recovering after priest departed into schism

Veliky Bychkov, Ukraine, November 29, 2019

Photo: spzh.news Photo: spzh.news     

For now, the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Veliky Bychkov in the Transcarpathian Province have to pray on the street after their priest departed into schism and took the church building with him.

The church was legally re-registered as an entity of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” but the faithful continue their liturgical activities, and have already acquired a plot of land to build a new church, Archpriest Vasily Kovach, Dean of the Veliky Bychkov Deanery of the Khust Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church told the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

Archpriest Mikhail Yagyuk announced he was joining the schismatic OCU in January. At that time, he was also the dean of the local deanery. His announcement was met by the immediate protest of the canonical faithful.

He also refused to return the antimens signed by His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Khust.

“At first, people prayed in the street, but now they already have a plot that some parishioners agreed to donate. The land has already been consecrated by the bishop, who served the Liturgy here on the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God,” Fr. Vasily explained.

Though the land has been donated, the local village council is dragging its feet on re-registering the necessary documents for the roughly 20 parishioners who remain of the canonical community.

Fr. Vasily also noted that the community has been assigned a new priest.

The remaining canonical parishioners gathered to pray in a cemetery in February, though schismatic activists attempted to block their entrance and shouted obscenities as the faithful prayed.

The faithful of the village of Golyadin in the Volyn Province in northwestern Ukraine are also building a new church to replace the one seized by schismatics.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, and Telegram!

11/29/2019

See also
Ukrainian community building new church to replace church seized by schismatic-nationalists Ukrainian community building new church to replace church seized by schismatic-nationalists Ukrainian community building new church to replace church seized by schismatic-nationalists Ukrainian community building new church to replace church seized by schismatic-nationalists
The faithful of the village of Golyadin in the Volyn Province in northwestern Ukraine lost their church building to the schismatic-nationalist activists of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” as have several other communities. Undeterred, they are now building a new church. “You won’t get to Heaven from stolen churches”—abbot of Svyatogorsk Lavra in Ukraine (+ VIDEO) “You won’t get to Heaven from stolen churches”—abbot of Svyatogorsk Lavra in Ukraine (+ VIDEO) “You won’t get to Heaven from stolen churches”—abbot of Svyatogorsk Lavra in Ukraine (+ VIDEO) “You won’t get to Heaven from stolen churches”—abbot of Svyatogorsk Lavra in Ukraine (+ VIDEO)
The present persecution against the canonical Ukrainian Church is an affront to God and not a path to Heaven, His Eminence Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatogorsk and abbot of the Holy Dormition-Svyatogorsk Lavra said exhorted in his homily at the monastery on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. “The time will come when the Holy Church will celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy over today’s schisms and disorders” “The time will come when the Holy Church will celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy over today’s schisms and disorders”
Met. Onuphry (Berezovsky) “The time will come when the Holy Church will celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy over today’s schisms and disorders” “The time will come when the Holy Church will celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy over today’s schisms and disorder”
Metropolitan Onuphry (Berezovsky)
Our churches are being taken away from us, but our communities are remaining true to the Church and are becoming even stronger. Our Church is being slandered, but our temples are filled with people who do not believe in falsehood but seek the truth. As the holy apostle Paul said, Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat (1 Cor. 4:12–13).
Comments
nun Cornelia12/4/2019 6:31 pm
David, of course it's ugly. But there are a number of differences between the U.S. and the Ukraine. One is that in the U.S. the local authorities don't really care what jurisdiction you are in--their concern is simply who holds legal title to the property. In the Ukraine, if the local authorities are partial to the OCU, then even if the church has always belonged to the UOC, they will still manage to assign rights to their preferred jurisdiction. There is no rule of law. It's happening like in the Middle Ages. And in the States, a community has bylaws to which they can have recourse in such cases. There is a parish council. But these churches in the Ukraine are being strong-armed away from the people who pray in them. You can't just concentrate on this particular case. It is happening over and over, with varying degrees of violence and injustice. The situation has to be taken as a whole.
David12/3/2019 3:08 am
Sister Cornelia, I question the reporting here. "Union of Orthodox Journalists" is a propaganda outfit. So is RISU (in the other direction) and I'm weary of Romfea as well. The Village Church belongs to the village, and currently parishioners are fighting over it. All Orthodox in that village were baptized in the Church, so they are all parishioners (even if some of them are lapsed to varying degrees). The priest and the "unfaithful" parishioners decided to join the OCU, while the "faithful" parishioners (loyal to the UOC-MP, of course) remain. These sorts of parish conflicts are an ugly feature in the Orthodox world and have happened in America too. It doesn't make it right, but there we have it. I know what OCU partisans and MP partisans say. It is akin to a nasty divorce, where the parents are trying to sway their children against the other parent. It's ugly, and diabolical, and has nothing to do with Christ.
nun Cornelia12/2/2019 3:35 pm
David: The word "remain" does not necessarily imply that there were others. I am afraid you are trying very hard to change the narrative; although it is clear to you and everyone that the "canonical Church" talked about here is the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, part of the MP, we don't know who you are representing and where you get your narrative. The article gets its information from a Ukrainian website. Where do you get yours? The village may have 10,000 inhabitants but it is quite optimistic of you to think that they all go to church. In most of these situations, the majority of the 10,000 villagers step inside the church once or twice a year at best. In most cases, the regular parishioners a a core group who actually know their religion and practice it. The legal transfer is made by secular authorities, who in Western Ukraine tend to be Ukrainian nationalists and interested in taking the churches from the original parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church--even though the latter are the ones who built it and have maintained it, and actually attend services regularly in it. Usually in these cases the priest also wants to stay with the UOC, and he is kicked out too. But in our Church, the parishioners do not have to follow their priest if he departs from the canonical church. It is not a local dictatorship, and the priest does not own the church. We have been seeing these church seizures all over western Ukraine for a number of years now, it is old hat, and we also know how it usually ends up--empty church buildings with the "Kiev Patriarchate" and now the OCU. Because our holy Scripture says, that the sheep know the voice of their true pastor, but they do not follow a hireling.
David12/2/2019 1:31 pm
Sister Cornelia, "for the roughly 20 parishioners who <b>remain</b> of the canonical community" *bolding mine* In English, use of the word "remain" implies that there were more. Where did they go? Who are they? A priest isn't going to just take the village church without the parishioners. Some people went with him, but how many? Perhaps the answer is not in line with the MP narrative, so they "leave" that out (The MP would have us believe that the OCU are a belligerent minority) Out of a village of roughly 10,000 (I looked it up) or so, how many Orthodox Christians are there? Only 20? Really? Or is it because the village at large decided to join the OCU, and these few who resist are being lauded as the only "true" community. Those "schismatic activists" are most likely their neighbors who went with the priest.
nun Cornelia12/2/2019 9:00 am
David, apparently you didn't read the article very carefully. It states that the priest decided to join the OCU, but the parishioners did not want to do so. Since he registered the parish with the OCU, without consulting the faithful, the parishioners are now forced to pray on the street. They are not dissenters, they are faithful Orthodox Christians who do not wish to soil themselves with that lawless band just because their priest chose to do so.
David12/2/2019 4:50 am
So what this article is saying is that a Village parish decided to join the OCU, and the 20 or so dissenters who disagree left to form their own parish. Note that the article says that the "canonical faithful" protested, no word on what the other parishioners thought. It would seem that the majority of the parishioners supported the decision, and yet this incident is being portrayed in a deceptive way. The Headline should read: "Village Parish joins OCU: Dissenters choose to remain in UOC-MP."
Here you can leave your comment on the present article, not exceeding 4000 characters. All comments will be read by the editors of OrthoChristian.Com.
Enter through FaceBook
Your name:
Your e-mail:
Enter the digits, seen on picture:

Characters remaining: 4000

Subscribe
to our mailing list

* indicates required
×