Nationalists were set against a Khmelnitsky priest for being “pro-Russian”
While in Kyiv supporters of autocephaly promise that “there will be no seizures of churches,” in the village of Sutkovtsy in the Khmelnytsky region, filaret schismatics are trying to take away the famous Intercession Church-fortress.
A video report from the scene was shown on TV Channel 33, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Father is an authoritative person, because he is the owner, there is nothing to say here. But his pro-Russian position, the fact that he is probably in more than one service in Russia, is obvious,” says one of the village residents, Valery Pavlyuk.
The Filaret members who burst into the temple did not allow the service to be held, chanted “Get rid of the Moscow priest!”, while an OCU worker proved to the local residents that the “pro-Russian” priest Onufriy was allegedly an enemy of the people.
“Your father is a deceiver. Let him come to me and we will talk one on one... He is misleading, saying that he has nothing to do with Moscow. But we know that Metropolitan Onuphry is a member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said.
Also, the Ukrainian nationalists participating in the seizure of the ancient temple, trying to bring the priest “out into the open,” asked him provocative questions.
“You are accomplices of Moscow. Is Russia an aggressor?” the nationalist provoked.
However, the majority of the residents of Sutkivtsi are not happy with what is happening, and made an attempt to defend the church and protect the priest.
“We stand up for our church. She has been standing in this place for 500 years, prayed for. Why should we give this church to someone and somewhere? This is ours, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and we are all for our priest! He is our best, and he has done everything for the church,” the parishioners are outraged.
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