The decision of the Rivne Regional Council regarding the prohibition of the UOC in the Rivne region and the abolition of a number of charters of religious communities, as well as the transfer of religious buildings to them, will be studied by the lawyers of the diocese. This commentary was given by the head of the diocese of the UOC, Archbishop of Rivne and Ostroh Pimen to the channel Suspilne.

At an extraordinary session of the Rivne Regional Council on April 10, the deputies decided to ban the activities of the UOC in the Rivne region. In addition, they voted to cancel a number of decisions of the executive committee of the Rivne Regional Council of People’s Deputies regarding the registration of charters of those religious communities that are currently part of the UOC and the transfer of religious buildings to them. The Regional Military Administration was entrusted to fulfill this paragraph of the decision.

A separate appeal from the regional council will be sent to local governments to make a decision to terminate the activities of the UOC in the territory of their communities.

“What are we planning to do? Believe. Trust God, pray. Apparently, for all these deputies who spat in the face of mothers and sons. We will pray for us, because Christ taught us to do this: love the one who does not love you. And we, the priesthood, will remain with our faithful to the end,” the archbishop replied.

“We will never leave our monasteries, our churches, because we built them, rebuilt them from ruins, somewhere from scratch,” the archbishop said.

According to the bishop, there are no plans to unite with the OCU.