Vinnitsa, Ukraine, June 19, 2020
Photo: strana.ua
“Metropolitan” Simeon Shostatsky of Vinnitsa and Bar of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” has contracted the coronavirus and is currently being treated in a hospital in Vinnitsa, reports the press service of his diocese.
Shostatsky is one of the two metropolitans of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine who abandoned the Church to join the schismatic OCU at Constantinople’s “unification council” on December 15, 2018.
Shostatsky tested positive for the coronavirus during treatment for a chronic illness. He is now undergoing treatment under the supervision of Vinnitsa doctors, according to the diocesan statement.
Larisa Chernaya, the medical doctor of the hospital where he is being treated, reported to the Union of Orthodox Journalists that his condition is “moderately severe.”
Feeling unwell, Shostatsky went to the Vinnitsa City Hospital for War Veterans at the beginning of the month. There his condition worsened and he was transferred to the First City Hospital of Vinnitsa.
Due to his illness, diocesan clergy and employees and those who had contact with Shostatsky were also tested for the coronavirus, and the necessary disinfection measures were carried out in the churches of his diocese.
The statement also notes that there has been an increase of cases of coronavirus in Ukraine and in Vinnitsa in particular lately.
“We ask for prayers for our archpastor and convey his gratitude and archpastoral blessing to everyone who prays and cares for Metropolitan Simeon,” the statement concludes.
