On June 2, 2022, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, representatives of the OCU, led by the “clerics” of this structure, with the support of strong men, attempted to forcibly seize the Church of the Intercession in the city of Fastov, Kyiv region. They beat the rector of the parish and cut off the locks with Bulgarians, but the believers managed to defend their shrine. Archimandrite Filaret (Yegorov), secretary of the Makarovsky vicariate of the Kyiv diocese, informed the Information and Education Department of the UOC about this.
Father Filaret said that the day before, on Sunday, the “clergymen of the OCU” and their supporters, having entered the territory of the temple, held their so-called meeting, at which people who were not parishioners of the temple voted for the transfer of the supposedly religious community to the “OCU”.
“On June 2, they announced the first service on the territory of the church. Approximately at the beginning of 8 o’clock in the morning, the clergy of the Makarovsky vicariate of the Kyiv diocese of the UOC began to perform a prayer service near the temple. At the same time, representatives of the OCU blocked the entrance to the church, as soon as the believers of the UOC approached the church, they began shouting curses and abuse. Pushing began, Orthodox believers began to be pushed away. During the confrontation, a blow was dealt to the rector, Father Anatoly.
Archpriest Anatoly Kirichenko-Kyriakidis was taken by the faithful to the parish house and an ambulance was called.
“After the first aid was given to the priest, the believers continued to perform akathists to the Mother of God, Archangel Michael, and Fr. Nicholas the Wonderworker. At this time, the OCU fans, using a grinder, began to cut the lock from the door to the feigned part of the temple. They also tried to break down the church door leading to the Altar from the side of the stamp. However, they failed to break the strong oak, almost 300-year-old doors with an old lock. Therefore, they began their “service” in the porch of the temple,” said the secretary of the Makarov vicariate.
The clergy of the UOC called the National Police. If the law enforcement officers at first preferred not to interfere in the process of the seizure of the temple by the supporters of the OCU, then later an additional police squad arrived on the territory of the church, who managed to sort out the situation.
“Law enforcement officers, after talking with the clergy of the UOC, found out that the community has all the legal grounds to pray in the Church of the Intercession, which is essentially obstructing the celebration of worship, and the meeting that took place here is not a meeting of a religious community. They allowed parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to go inside the church and serve there. The clergy sent a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord God for having the opportunity to pray in the church on such a big holiday, when there was an encroachment on their temple, and also expressed gratitude to those employees of the National Police who, having understood the situation, confirmed the legitimate constitutional right of the religious community to pray in church, of which they are parishioners,” said Father Filaret.
