The Moscow Regional Court has ruled that the Holy Trinity Church of the Bohorodsk Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate in the city of Noginsk (a Moscow suburb) must be demolished, announced hieromonk Svyatoslav (Merkuriy) Skorokhod on his FB page:
The lawsuit against the UOC-KP was filed by the Noginsk City Administration, but hieromonk Svyatoslav Skorokhod believes it was probably instigated by the Moscow Patriarchate.
The court ruled that the Ukrainian Church of the Holy Trinity was to be demolished in four months at the expense of the Ukrainian diocese.
Hieromonk Svyatoslav Skorokhod also remarked that [quote]before the hearing, lawyer Tatiana Goryunova, who was defending the interests of the UOC-KP, was brutally attacked. Unidentified persons in a passing vehicle opened fire on Ms Goryunova.[/quote] She also received death threats over the phone if she continued to support and defend the Ukrainian church publicly in court.
Metropolitan Adrian Starina noted:
[quote]“Unfortunately, anything related to Ukraine is being cleaned out and systematically destroyed. Today we saw the decision regarding demolition of our church; yesterday it was the forced closure of the Ukrainian library and banning of a single centralized Ukrainian organization – The Ukrainian Congress of Russia.”[/quote]
A similar trend has been observed in the occupied territories, namely in Crimea and Donbas. Moslems are persistently interrogated, arrested and imprisoned, and several mosques and madrasas (educational institutions) have been closed down. The UOC-KP is systematically persecuted in Crimea, and some KP churches have been illegally seized in the occupied territories of Donbas.
Related:
- Religious persecution continues in occupied Donbas
- Statement of heads of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine on religious persecution in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts
- Scholar: Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate supports repressions, militarism
- Chaplin, ‘a Zhirinovsky from the Orthodox Church,’ says mass repressions necessary and reasonable
- Authorities ready to demolish only Ukrainian church in Russia
- How Russia used Orthodox fundamentalism to hijack the Church Council in Crete
- How the Moscow Patriarchate is creating a separatist Lavra “Republic” in Kyiv
- Pro-Russia militants in occupied east Ukraine torture Protestant pastor to convert to Russian Orthodox Church
- The Kremlin turns priests into obedient “comrades”
- The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate resembles the CPSU of Soviet times
- Moscow Patriarchate beefs up its staff for hybrid operations against Ukraine