Nosivka. Raiders in camouflage seized a UOC church
Holy Trinity Church of the UOC
Address: Chernihiv Oblast, city of Nosivka, 1 Komunalna St.
The Holy Trinity Church of the UOC in Nosivka and its parishioners became victims of a group of raiders led by OCU clerics.
The raiders first falsified documents pertaining to the religious community, which enabled them to illegally transfer the church to the OCU's ownership.
At night, OCU representatives, operating under police cover, broke the locks and seized the church premises.
The church's parishioners were subjected to several attacks that resulted in serious injuries.
🔴On April 30, 2023, the parishioners of the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Nosivka, of the Nizhyn Diocese, reaffirmed their loyalty to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy.
The parishioners, approximately five hundred of whom gathered at the church on that Sunday, also expressed their support for the church's long-serving rector, Archpriest Mykhailo Hulyko, in connection with a smear campaign launched against him on social media by Nosivka city officials.
The large parish gathering was also connected to the fact that city officials had staged a simulated community meeting at the local House of Culture, at which they planned to change the parish's jurisdiction without the knowledge of the rector or the parishioners.
The faithful openly condemned the actions of city officials for interfering in religious life.
"We are Ukrainians, faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is our Mother, and we have no intention of going anywhere," declared one of the parishioners.
The parishioners attested to their loyalty to the UOC with their signatures in the minutes of the community assembly.
🔴On May 5, 2023, it became known that unknown individuals had painted the fence of the home of the dean of the Nosivka Church District, rector of the Holy Trinity UOC Church in Nosivka, Father Mykhailo Hulyk, with graffiti.
The fence, painted with the letters Z and V (symbols used by the Russian army during its invasion of Ukraine — ed.), became yet another link in the campaign of harassment of the priest organized by OCU supporters. Local journalists noted that it remains unknown "whether this was connected to the difficult situation that has currently developed in Nosivka around the potential transfer of the Holy Trinity parish from the UOC to the OCU, or whether someone simply 'acted out.'"
According to their information, Archpriest Mykhailo Hulyk does not intend to contact law enforcement.
🔴At around midnight on October 2, 2023, unknown individuals in camouflage, under the command of OCU clerics and with police support, broke down the doors and seized the Holy Trinity UOC Church.
One of the women approached police officer Yevhen Anatoliyovych Boyko and asked what the unknown individuals were doing on the grounds and inside the church at night. The officer replied that "people had come who presented documents showing that the church belongs to the Nosivka territorial community." Boyko did not explain what connection representatives of the territorial community have to an Orthodox church. Nor did he explain why the "community" was barring actual parishioners from entering the church.
"I am a parishioner who regularly attends all services — let me into the church. Why did these 'parishioners' come not for a liturgy, but came here at night? What are they doing here at night?" the woman asked the police officer.
She then approached one of the OCU clerics and asked him to explain what he was doing there.
He stated that he was "not authorized" to speak with her.
"But you are a priest? So why don't you want to speak with a parishioner of this church? What are you doing here?" the believer asked him, and posed the same question to another OCU cleric.
But he stated that he does not speak with "Russians," just as he does not speak "with people who work for Russia."
A man in uniform, who was obstructing filming, told the parishioners the following: "You are my enemies, you must be destroyed."
"If you are a soldier, then who are you protecting, if I — a Ukrainian parishioner who attends every service — am your enemy? Who are you then?" the woman asked the man in camouflage. In response, she heard from an OCU cleric that "the donations of this church are used to buy bullets that kill us."
🔴On October 3, 2023, in Nosivka, during a prayer vigil in front of the fence of the seized Holy Trinity Church, a UOC believer was brutally beaten by a man in military uniform.
A statement from the press service of the Nizhyn Diocese of the UOC asserts that the aggressor was present together with OCU representatives and assisted them in seizing the Holy Trinity UOC Church.
Before the beating, the OCU "priest" distracted the victim and attempted to lead her away from the other believers.
The Nizhyn Diocese stated that the victim sustained "a chest contusion, a fracture of the left ribs, and a contusion of the left forearm." The woman filed a report with law enforcement; however, officers at the local police station have yet to enter the report into the crime registry.
The press service reports that even before the beating, the victim had been receiving threats from the individuals who had seized the Holy Trinity Church.
🔴On that same day, October 3, 2023, the Nizhyn Diocese of the UOC submitted detailed information to staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding crimes committed against parishioners of the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Nosivka and human rights violations on religious grounds.
The Office of the Commissioner was informed of the beating of a UOC believer by OCU supporters and of the involvement of "clergy" of that denomination in the incident, as well as of the absence of any response from local law enforcement to the event.
According to the diocesan press service, UN representatives intend to monitor the progress of the investigation into the documented crimes with the view of including the recorded human rights violations on religious grounds in the monitoring and report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
🔴On October 5, 2023, the church community appealed to the city authorities and law enforcement with a demand to restore order and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The appeal states that unknown individuals in military uniform and clerical vestments, with the assistance of T. Zezyulkina, S. Trush, V. Kravchenko, and S. Borodin, cut the locks and doors of the Holy Trinity Church with an angle grinder.
"They changed the locks and posted guards. The religious community of our church and its clergy, Father Mykhailo Hulyk and Father Volodymyr Aleksyk, were not even allowed onto the church grounds by the unknown individuals in uniform and by police officers. For the first time in 34 years, we are unable to enter either the church or even its grounds; people are forced to pray outside the fence, right on the street," wrote parishioner Olha Holovko on behalf of the community.
The text states that "these actions constitute a direct violation of Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Article 300 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, and demean the honor and dignity of the person."
The Holy Trinity community asks the authorities to intervene, restore order, and hold accountable those responsible for the unlawful actions.
🔴On October 8, 2023, OCU representatives beat parishioners of the Holy Trinity Church.
According to reports from the scene, Orthodox Christians were praying at the fence of their shrine. Inside the church, the OCU raiders who had seized the church on October 3 were conducting their "worship service."
During the prayer, OCU representatives attacked the Orthodox Christians, beating priest's wife Maria and parishioners of the church.
Furthermore, OCU activists broke the leg of an elderly woman.
Emergency medical personnel provided first aid to the victim at the scene.
🔴On October 25, 2023, on the feast of the Jerusalem Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, Metropolitan Klyment of Nizhyn and Pryluky visited the Holy Trinity community.
The house where the service took place had previously belonged to a priest well known in the Chernihiv region — the late Archpriest Hryhoriy Pylypenko, who throughout his entire priestly ministry was subjected to persecution by the atheist authorities.
The premises could not accommodate the more than one hundred faithful who came for the liturgy.
Metropolitan Klyment was co-served by the secretary of the diocesan administration, Archpriest Valeriy Dashko, the dean of the Nosivka Church District and rector of the parish, Archpriest Mykhailo Hulyk, and the priests of the deanery.
The participants in the service offered a special prayer for the coming of peace in Ukraine.
Following the liturgy, the hierarch presided over a prayer service before the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God. During his homily, the bishop told the flock about this icon and also thanked the parishioners for the feat of preserving the purity of the Orthodox faith and their loyalty to the canonical Church. Every person present received an icon from the archpastor as a prayerful remembrance of the feast.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН