Chernivtsi, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, August 26, 2024
Photo: pravlife.org
For the first time in Ukraine, a Romanian-speaking parish of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been closed.
On Friday, August 23, the administration of the Chernivtsi city cemetery cut the locks off the Three Holy Hierarchs Church, located on the territory of the cemetery, and sealed the building, preventing the faithful from entering and praying there, reports the Diocese of Chernivtsi and Bukovina.
There are well over 100 Romanian-speaking parishes in the Bukovina region of Ukraine. According to the diocese, this is the first to be shuttered.
The church also serves as the tomb of seven Orthodox bishops from Bukovina. It was built by the Metropolis of Bukovina in 1881 and restored by various Romanian societies, the Romanian consulate, and parishioners in 1990. According to Orthodox Life, the city has never helped in the restoration of the church or in the care of the adjacent cemetery property. Nevertheless, in October 2023, the Chernivtsi City Council declared that the parish community no longer had a right to use the church, and now the church has been physically sealed.
Photo: pravlife.org “We see how the authorities deliberately restrict the rights and infringe on the Romanian-speaking minority in Ukraine,” the diocese writes.
“At first, the authorities refused to register the Vicariate for the Romanian Orthodox Church, but now they have begun to seal Romanian-speaking parishes... what's next?”
The diocese is referring to the so-called “Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” created by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in February of this year. Earlier this month, it was reported that Ukrainian authorities refused to legally register the structure, saying the relevant parishes should join the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” a structure which is recognized as schismatic by the majority of the Orthodox world, including the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Romanian hierarchs have been concerned about the fate of the more than 100 ethnically Romanian parishes in western Ukraine for several years now, amidst the growing ecclesiastical schism that picked up steam in 2018-2019 with the creation of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, and now the war in Ukraine with the accompanying state persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In July 2019, the Synod of Bishops of the schismatic OCU announced its intention to create a Romanian vicariate, hoping it would persuade the Romanian Church to recognize them, but the Romanian faithful living in Ukraine showed no interest.
It’s expected that the parishioners of the Three Holy Hierarchs Church in the Chernivtsi cemetery will prepare an appeal to the president of Romania.
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