In Sumy Region, the Shostka City Court fined Hieromonk Andronik (Zenkov), a minister with the ROC in Ukraine, for inciting religious hatred and animosity, insult and restricting the rights of citizens on religious grounds. An official of the Moscow Patriarchate branded members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine “schismatics” and expressed outrage over the construction of an OCU church.
That’s according to the Judicial Reporter newspaper, referring to the verdict’s text.
The abbot of the Holy Intercession Church with the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine was outraged with the fact that the OCU intends to build a church in the village of Voronizh, Sumy Region.
“NON-Orthodox church – which Voronizh doesn’t need at all! In our village, there are three ancient temples and they need help and support, while the fourth temple is NOT needed! Let people think correctly if their local chief doesn’t think. No one ran a poll (which would be appropriate by the way) just accepted the fact that the local mayor allocated a site for the construction of a church for schismatics,” lamented the ROCinU minister.
He was also indignant about the fact that local authorities found funds for building the church.
A religious examination said the abbot of the ROCinU had been inciting hatred, which led to Andronik being fined UAH 8,500, while the punishment cap for this article is three years in prison.
It is worth noting that Andronik visited the occupied territories of Donbas. In 2015, in non-government-controlled Horlivka, he read out the “Address of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on the occasion of the celebration of Orthodox Youth Day.”
