UOC believers in Kamianets sue the reserve not letting them into the temple

Representatives of the reserve hang their locks on the doors of St. Nicholas Church in defiance of the court decision. Photo: UOJ

Believers of the UOC in Kamianets-Podilskyi are suing the National Historical and Architectural Reserve "Kamianets" because its representatives are obstructing their use of the church. Despite the Supreme Court's decision in favor of parishioners, reserve officials have placed a lock on the doors of the church and are not allowing people inside.

Recall that the UOC community signed a perpetual lease agreement for the St. Nicholas Church with the Kamianets National Historical and Architectural Reserve in 1990. However, in February 2023, the director of the reserve unilaterally decided to terminate the agreement, citing a decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) dated December 1, 2022, and an expert examination by the State Ethnopolitics of the UOC Charter "on the presence of church-canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchate."

The St. Nicholas community appealed to the Supreme Court, which sided with the parishioners and overturned the decision of the Economic Court of the Khmelnytskyi Region on June 29, 2023, on the eviction of the UOC community and the transfer of the church to the "Kamianets" Reserve.

Now, the reserve is ignoring the decision of the highest court. The case regarding the demands of the community will be considered by the Economic Court of the Khmelnytskyi Region on February 29, 2024.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the rector of the St. Nicholas Church explained how representatives of local authorities tried to evict his community from the church despite the court's decision in favor of the UOC believers.

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