Lutsk City District Court turned down the appeal by a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, a former chief of the Shepel village parish.
According to the incumbent rector of the parish, Archpriest Viktor Lipchyk, the court heard a lawsuit to repeal the new charter of the religious community and the very registration of the document, according to the official website of the OCU’s Volyn Eparchy.
The priest and parishioners of the OCU are satisfied with the ruling so on Sunday, July 18, after the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a prayer of thanksgiving was held.
It should be recalled that two years ago, the parish in the village of Shepel decided to quit the Moscow Patriarchate and reunite with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. But the then abbot, the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Mykola Ilyuk, showed no support for parishioners’ will.
The faithful set up a meeting, collected signatures, and appealed to the Office of the OCU’s Volyn Eparchy asking to accept them. Over this fact, the priest of the Moscow Patriarchate filed a lawsuit to cancel the community’s new registration with the OCU and the statute. Also, he demanded that the court invalidate the decisions of the parish assembly and other instances that issued registration documents regarding the activities of the parish under the jurisdiction of the Volyn eparchy of the PCU.
The former abbot also filed another lawsuit aiming to seize back the church premises. This litigation is still pending, while the OCU says the plaintiff has been delaying the trial.
On June 19 this year, the OCU community held a rally to defend their rights and make public the developments in litigation to gain popular support.
