On March 13th 2019 the Information- Educational Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, citing the press service of the diocese, reported that supporters of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine“ in the village of Derevushek in the Dubrovitsky district of the Rovno region cut off the locks on the Svyato-Nikolaevsky temple of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). This isn’t the first time the property of parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been captured with the assistance of local officials
As it became known, the vandals, who earlier profaned the temple, immediately installed their own locks and don’t allow parishioners to enter the temple and intimidate the prior Archpriest Nikolay Ivanichko.
Despite the fact that the religious community possesses all documents confirming its property right to the temple and the land, it was expelled onto the street.
The chairman of the Dubrovitsky district state administration M.M. Petrushko, who is a resident of this village, and actually the village chairman, promotes this lawlessness.
As a reminder, yesterday, on March 12th, priests and believers of the Dubrovitsky deanery of the Polesskoye-Sarnensky diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) gathered for a standing prayer at the regional state administration of Dubrovitsa in the Rovno region and expressed a protest in connection with the violation of their constitutional right to freedom of religion. The faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) are being put under unprecedented pressure to forcibly “transfer” their parishes to the newly created schismatic “Orthodox Church in Ukraine”. Despite this pressure, Orthodox Christians of the Polesskoye region remain faithful to the Church and its Head, therefore the authorities have no choice but to illegally deprive them of their place of prayer. The personal efforts of the head of the local district state administration Nikolay of Mikhailovich Petrushka have closed three churches in the Dubrovitsky deanery.
The people of Polesskoye are outraged by the actions of the authorities of the Rovno region and say that they in protest will not vote at the presidential election for P. Poroshenko, under whose governance the constitutional rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) are so flagrantly violated. The Polesskoye-Sarnensky diocese notes: “responsibility for this decision lies entirely on the local government, which kindles religious strife in the region and ignores all the appeals of orthodox believers”.
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