Court upholds city council decision to cut all ties with Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye Province, Ukraine, September 22, 2023

    

A Zaporozhye court rejected last week the lawsuit brought by the Zaporozhye Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thereby upholding the City Council’s decision to completely cut ties with the Orthodox Church.

On July 12, the Zaporozhye City Council held an extraordinary session on the issue of relations with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the end, despite an appeal from the clergy and parishioners of the UOC, the council resolved to break all its agreements with the Church.

After months of failed attempts to force the diocese and its parishes into the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” 42 out of 43 deputies present voted to reject the Church

Just before the matter was put to the vote, His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye issued an appeal to the clergy and parishioners of his diocese, calling on them to remain faithful and do everything possible to defend their Church.

A statement on the City Council website notes that the Council completely objected to the lawsuit, arguing that it is in line with the Ukrainian constitution and legislation to cut off all ties with the Church, including agreements for use of land and buildings, because, despite the UOC’s own decisions, the Council considers it to still be part of the Moscow Patriarchate, and thus based in “a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine.”

And on September 15, the Zaporozhye District Administrative Court came down on the side of the City Council.

Met. Luke himself is also among the hierarchical targets of the Ukrainian state. In August he was summoned for interrogation, after which he revealed that criminal proceedings have been opened against him based own social media post he made about the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”

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9/22/2023

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