A gift from the authorities: OCU clerics serve in UOC Monastery on Trinity
On the Holy Trinity feast, the authorities of Verkhovyna opened the sealed Dukonsky Monastery of the UOC for the “priests” of the OCU and their supporters.
At the suggestion of the authorities of Verkhovyna, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, the “priests” of the OCU performed a “worship” in the Dukonsky Trinity Monastery, taken from the UOC, journalist Roman Klim said on his Facebook page.
The leadership of the Verkhovyna District Military Administration and the Verkhovyna District Council opened the monastery, which was sealed in March, when the armed members of territorial defense expelled the monks of the UOC from there.
On June 12, 2022, the "priests" of the OCU celebrated a "liturgy" in the monastery. The event was attended by the Chairman of the DSA Vasily Brovchuk, the head of the district council Yuriy Filipchuk, the heads of the Zelensky and Beloberezsky village councils Vladimir Ferkaliak and Dmitry Ivaniuk, deputies of rural communities, the director of a local enterprise with employees and border guards.
Klim said that a preliminary agreement had been reached on regular "services" of the OCU in the Trinity Monastery.
“The place is sacred, prayer-indwelt, and we need to support it,” said the chairman of the RVA, Vasily Brovchuk.
Dukonsky Holy Trinity Monastery is located at an altitude of 1,500 meters in a mountain valley. It was founded on May 28, 1999 with the blessing of Schema-Archimandrite Kirill (Sokolov) from the Brailov Monastery, as well as Schema-Archimandrite Dimitry (Shevkenik) and Schema-Archimandrite Theodosius (Orlov) from the Pochaiv Monastery. The monastery was consecrated in 2003. Then, under the monastery, the local authorities allocated the UOC land (3.5 hectares – Ed.) with an abandoned dairy farm.
On March 9, 2022, armed representatives of the local territorial defense forces seized the monastery, took away the keys from Archimandrite Titus (Drachuk) and held him captive for several days. The authorities sealed the monastery, and the locals even began to dismantle it for firewood.
As the UOJ wrote, the UOC Chancellor told the EU ambassadors about attempts to ban the UOC.