On February 22, 2021 at the congress of the persecuted communities “Faithful” in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, mother Ulyana Taborovets, the wife of the rector of the seized church in the village of Berestye, Archpriest Sergiy Taborovets, said that two years after the seizure of the temple, enmity still reigns in the village and called on the authorities not to divide people into “right people” and “strangers”, despite everyone has equal rights before the law.
“Two years have passed, and only now families are starting to communicate, only now! Until recently, even families did not communicate. But even now it is impossible to say that everything has passed. We still have a war in the village. Because there is a division into “yours” and “ours,” says the priest’s wife.
She does not understand why the authorities treat the believers of the UOC as second-class people.
“I am also a citizen of Ukraine. My children are citizens of Ukraine. We talk, we communicate at home in Ukrainian. We sing Ukrainian songs. And why am I then a “Moscow traitor”? Just because I have not betrayed the faith? According to the Constitution of Ukraine, we all have the right to faith. By conscience. Whoever wants to – and believes. Here even Satanists can pray, Muslims can pray, right? And Orthodox Christians, as they call us, the Moscow Patriarchate, have no right to even bury a person normally in their village! Why ?!” she asks.
Ulyana Taborovets was outraged by the incident during the funeral of a centenary grandmother, which took place in their village, when the question of the “priest” of the OCU, “whose funeral?” – he was told – “Moscow is dead.”
“Has she ever been to Moscow in her 100 years? What kind of Moscow is she ?! She is Ukrainian. She devoted her whole life to Ukraine. I want to ask for power – do not divide people, give us the opportunity to pray. Look – that’s how many churches were taken – after all, no one took them back by force, right? Therefore, there is only one request to the authorities – let us register as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, give us the opportunity to build. Because, for example, our head of the village council said, they say, you will crawl on my knees to beg for land, but I won’t give it to you. We didn’t save the temple, yes. But we saved people. People are all with us – everyone who was with us and stayed,” she added.
“We ask – at least give us back our registration (communities). We have nothing – no registration, no church. Because to say what we have gone through. No, we didn’t. We still experience it, every time. Many priests came out of our village. And when you watch someone serve in the cathedral, and you humble yourself and serve in the hut, it is difficult to convey this to you. Only those who have experienced it will understand this,” she added.