Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

13:49:44
23/09/2018

ria.ru

 

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine started inventorying the property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, reports the website of the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

It is noted that the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture created commissions for the assessment of church property in the Sumy region. According to the Archpriest Aleksey Radionov, the Savior-Transfiguration temple received the corresponding notice on September 20th. The priest emphasised that other religious communities from Glukhov in the Sumy region received similar information.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate regards such actions as the preparation for the seizure of church property against the background of the possible granting of autocephaly to Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate.

“This initiative can be the first link in a chain of initiatives aimed at seizing the property of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in favor of schismatics,” stressed the representatives of the Canonical church.

The chairman of the legal department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archpriest Aleksandr Bakhov noted that Ukrainian officials “have no right to take and reallocate someone else’s property”. According to him, religious communities weren’t given any historical-cultural valuables to use or store.

“That’s why their demands are illegal,” he summarised.

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