Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) cleric Nikolai Khomyak made an obscene oath to faithful parishioners of the Church of the Intercession in the Khmelnytsky district, following accusations that he and activists had seized a cathedral belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the Moscow Patriarchate. The publication writes about the conflict “Orthodoxy News”.
According to the Khmelnytsky diocese, the incident occurred on January 27 in a church in the village of Pecheski in the Khmelnytsky district. According to the publication, Khomyak demanded that everyone who did not belong to the OCU leave the temple under threat of force.
In a video posted online, the cleric addressed the church’s rector, Archbishop Mikhail Furman, asking him to “filter the market.”
Later, in response to the words of one of the women who scolded Khomyak, he said: “Shut your mouth if you do not want to fall under my curse.”
The woman became angry when she heard such statements from the clergyman. “So does that count as ‘father’?” – the parishioner said with surprise in the video.
Activists by local diocese pushed out from the temple of its rector Furman and Archbishop Vitaly Dunts. The official reason for the seizure was the illegal meeting held on October 27, 2023, with the aim of transferring the church community to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
OCU is an autocephalous Orthodox Church located on the territory of Ukraine, which received this status from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in January 2019. For this purpose, the relevant tomos (church canonical document) was provided to the OCU.
UOC – Before Autocephaly was granted, OCU was recognized by all local Orthodox churches as the only legitimate Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It is part of the Moscow Patriarchate, that is, part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but has broad autonomy rights.
Previously AppearedAlmost a thousand parishes of the UOC were transferred to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.