Mykhailivka-Rubezhovka. The Mayor of the City and a Military Formation Seized a UOC Church

Church of Archangel Michael of the UOC in Mykhailivka-Rubezhovka

Address: Kyiv region, village of Mykhailivka-Rubezhovka, Rohovenko St., 86

The Archangel Michael Church of the UOC was seized through document forgery by a group of OCU raiders.

The perpetrators organized a meeting of the territorial community in the village, at which people having no relation whatsoever to the religious community resolved to transfer the church to OCU ownership.

After several provocations, the church was seized by representatives of a local military volunteer formation and the mayor of the city of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn.

🔴On July 17, 2022, with the support of Irpin mayor Oleksandr Markushyn, a meeting of the territorial community was held in the village of Mykhailivka-Rubezhovka, at which the village residents voted to transfer the UOC's Mykhailivsky Church to the OCU.

The rector and parishioners of the church arrived at the meeting in a religious procession. Upon arriving, they refused to register to participate in the vote, since the fate of the Mykhailivsky Church can only be decided by members of the religious community, not the territorial community.

"We came to show that we are the religious community of our village — people who today prayed, were in the church, received communion, and participate in the life of the church," emphasized the rector of the Mykhailivsky Church, Archpriest Petro Chopyk.

At the meeting, Archpriest Petro Chopyk informed those present about the decisions of the UOC Council of May 27, 2022, about the fact that the community of the Mykhailivsky Church provides humanitarian aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to displaced persons, and that many UOC believers are at the front, including relatives of clergy. Father Petro stressed that the decision on the confessional affiliation of the church can only be made at a meeting of the church's religious community.

The priest's microphone was switched off, and security guards in military uniforms snatched a phone from the hands of one of the Orthodox believers, after which Father Petro and the parishioners returned to the church in a religious procession. Without them, representatives of the territorial community voted to transfer the church to the OCU and announced this on Facebook. They now plan to hold the first "service" in the Mykhailivsky Church.

Father Petro stressed that the religious community of the Church of the Archangel Michael, Commander of the Heavenly Host, remains in the UOC and will defend its constitutional rights in court. As early as July 10, 2022, a meeting of the parishioners of the Mykhailivsky Church was held, at which all those present — 162 parishioners — unanimously voted to maintain their loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophorion of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, which was duly recorded in the minutes.

(Source: UOJ)

🔴On November 12, 2022, a group of OCU raiders from the village of Mykhailivka-Rubezhovka came to the Church of Archangel Michael, Commander of the Heavenly Host.

The intruders planned to enter the shrine.

The church community and numerous parishioners from affected communities stood up to defend the church and prevented the raiders from entering the grounds.

(Source: Project "DOZOR on the First Cossack")

🔴On December 13, 2022, an OCU cleric and Irpin mayor Oleksandr Markushyn brought armed men in balaclavas to the UOC church in honor of Archangel Michael, Commander of the Heavenly Host, and blocked the entrance to the church for the faithful.

"In the morning I left for a clergy meeting at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. A neighbor called and said a seizure was underway, so I returned to God's church. When I arrived, I saw that OCU members and the territorial defense were here, led by Markushyn… I don't know whether they entered the church or not — no one gave them keys — but they locked the gate and are not letting us onto the church grounds," said the church's rector, Father Petro Chopyk.

Parishioners gathered near the church. The rector attempted to enter the church, but representatives of the territorial defense, alongside whom an OCU cleric was standing, blocked his path.

"For sixteen years I prayed and lived here together with you, and you have made me and my parishioners into enemies. Guys, do you not fear God? During a war, on the contrary, we must unite rather than seek enemies within the Church. You are not letting us into God's church, where we save our souls and pray for Ukraine, for peace," the priest said to the raiders. He offered to show a list of Rubezhovka residents who are fighting on the front line and for whom UOC believers offer unceasing prayers.

"The territorial defense is supposed to protect us from enemies, not from ourselves — from the parishioners. Remember how the 'Berkut' from the Maidan ended up? That is exactly how it will end for you, because this is lawlessness," declared one of the female parishioners. The territorial defense soldiers replied that they had come to "protect the church."

Father Petro also reminded the raiders that the community is currently engaged in legal proceedings — suing OCU representatives who had already attempted to seize the church. Father Petro proposed waiting for the end of the trial and acting in accordance with the law.

The church's parishioners indignantly recounted to the armed men how much the community had done for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and for the village's residents.

"Where is the justice? When the war was right here, how much did the priest collect from everywhere, how much did we help the village, how much did we collect for the soldiers, how much did we send to the war! And this is the gratitude for all of that? The guys (Territorial Defense — Ed.) don't live here, they don't know anything; if they were our parishioners, they would know how we lived and what we did," the parishioners lamented.

According to Archpriest Petro Chopyk and members of the UOC religious community in honor of Archangel Michael, Commander of the Heavenly Host, Irpin mayor Oleksandr Markushyn and supporters of Dumenko are behind the seizure.

(Source: UOJ)