On December 15, 2021, believers of the UOC gathered at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Snitkov, in order not to let the raiders of the OCU into the temple, writes the UOJ.

In anticipation of a possible seizure by force, as was the case in the village of Bakhtin, the Orthodox of the UOC held a prayer for the granting of peace in the church.

After the prayer service, the dean of the Murovanokurilovets deanery of the Mogilev-Podolsk diocese of the UOC, Archpriest Vasily Balan, told the believers the good news:

“Today, brothers, we stood up for prayer, and they brought us a court decision, which stops the illegal re-registration of Saletsky. Thank God that someone is working for the people, for the people, for the state and shows that there are civilized people here,” fr. Vasily also thanked those who stood up for the defense of the law.

The court decision, the text of which was at the disposal of the media, states that the Vinnytsia officials – Melnikov and Saletsky – illegally changed the status of the religious organization:

“In pursuance of this order, despite the court’s ban in this case on making any changes and taking actions that would change the status of the religious organization“ Religious community (parish) of St. .h. in order to change the status of a legal entity (identification code 44602102, 23417, Vinnytsia region. further the chief specialist of the department in religious affairs Melnikov V.Yu., by order of Saletsky I.A. from 09.11.2021 No. 74, carried out a number of registration actions from 07.12.2021 No. 1009771070001000020 and from 08.12.2021 No. 1009777770002000020, which actually changed the status of the above legal entity, “the court’s decision says.

The court ruled to terminate the decree of the Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration of June 9, 2021 No. 33 on the re-registration of the Verbovets village community from the UOC to the OCU, and the statements and entries made on the basis of this decree in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, as well as effect of decree No. 74 of November 9, 2021 on the registration of the charter of the OCU community in the village of Snitkov. The court forbade state and local authorities to obstruct the communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the settlements of Verbovets, Snitkov and Bakhtin.