Mikhalcha, Ukraine, December 14, 2020
Photo: spzh.news
Over the weekend, 50 to 100 adherents of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” some armed with brass knuckles, tried and failed to violently seize the Holy Dormition Church in the village of Mikhalcha in the Chernivtsi Province.
The violent nationalists did manage to show their contempt for the holy church of Christ, completely destroying the outer door leading to the narthex on Saturday.
Recall that in Patriarch Bartholomew’s view, such violent radicals belong to the rightful Church in Ukraine, while those who are attacked and have their churches taken from them are mere occupiers. In October 2018, Pat. Bartholomew and the Holy Synod chose to enter into communion with the attackers and the “hierarchs” they represent. Since then, Pat. Bartholomew has never spoken out in defense of those who are physically attacked throughout Ukraine.
Saturday’s attack was already the third on the Church of the Dormition. The Ukrainian faithful have been keeping a round-the-clock prayer watch over their church for nearly two years now.
“Thank God, the supporters of the OCU did not get into the church,” Fr. Vitaly Goncharyuk, the head of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese’s Information Department told the Union of Orthodox Journalists, explaining that they managed to get into the narthex, but could not get through the reinforced doors leading to the nave of the church.
Before the police arrived, the schismatics who unfurled a huge Ukrainian state flag, destroyed the church’s security cameras and also attacked the rector, hitting him in the chest with a shovel and spraying tear gas in his face.
Meanwhile, according to the Chernivtsi Diocese of the schismatic OCU, the armed men came merely to pray and fell victim to “pro-Russian people” and the police. “It’s a shame that the national police don’t stand up for national interests,” writes the OCU, which was created by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ukrainian government under Petro Poroshenko.
The diocese failed to explain how the door to the church got destroyed. Meanwhile, local Ukrainian media has been reporting the OCU line that the men simply came to hold a moleben.
“Aren’t you ashamed? What kind of ‘priest’ are you?” the UOC faithful can be heard in in videos from the scene, asking the OCU “priest” who was part of the attack. “Do you serve God? You serve the devil!”
“They called themselves patriots of Ukraine,” the local faithful said, referring to the violent attackers. “And what kind of patriots are they when they break a church?... This is not the first time that people have come to our church with such weapons, but the Lord has mercy on us.”
Having arrived on the scene, the police managed to stabilize the situation, setting up a living corridor between the violent OCU supporters and the UOC faithful who were trying to defend their church.
Fr. Vitaly stressed that most of the attackers are not locals, but were bused in specifically to attack the church. Eyewitnesses say there were between 50 and 100 people, some armed with brass knuckles.
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