Natives of the UAOC and the UOC-KP cannot divide churches in the Kharkiv region.
The “archbishop” of the OCU Afanasy Shkurupy accused the “archbishop” of the OCU Mitrofan Butynsky of a raider seizure of the parishes of the Kharkiv Deanery.
“Friends, pray! Today, on the week of the Cross, before the Holy Cross, the devil held a sabbath in the parishes of Sokolove and Tsirkuni in the Kharkiv region and by the hands of their rectors, Fr. Stanislav Ashtrafyan and Fr. Oleg Kozub, temporarily removed from the leadership by me, there is a rebellion with the aim of transferring parishes to another diocese,” wrote Afanasy Shkurupy, a former “hierarch” of the UAOC, now heading the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy of the OCU, on his Facebook page.
According to him, the “invaders” gathered outside people who “come to church only to bless an Easter cake” and are going to “commit an act of Judas betrayal”.
All this process, he added, “is led by an experienced director Bishop Mitrofan” Butynsky, the former “hierarch” of the UOC-KP. According to Shkurupy, “there are threats that other parishes of the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy will also be taken over in order to oust Archbishop Athanasius from the Kharkiv region”.
“This is how we are doing here. It is painful and insulting that this is where the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine begins. Well, we got what we have fought for!” stated the “hierarch” of the OCU Afanasy.
Under the post, the “hierarch” had to explain to the commentators who, what and why seizes, and to what confession Mitrofan Butynsky belongs.
“He ruled the Kharkiv Eparchy of the UOC-KP, and I ruled the Kharkiv-Poltava UAOC, and since December 2018 we have been part of the OCU. By the way, the OCU Statute prohibits such transfers. Only … But I’m not sorry for Mitrofan, I’m sorry for the priests. He is under investigation for a criminal offence but is serving because at his time behind my back he received a written blessing to continue from M. Macarius. I can only make a helpless gesture …,” said Shkurupy.
As reported earlier, in Rivne the “bishop” of the OCU is trying to evict the UAOC community from the church, calling it a sect.
