Ecclesiastical court punishes UOC-MP priests who attacked Protestant tent with religious literature
The ecclesiastical court of the Simferopol and Crimean Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) considered the matter of ecclesiastical offenses envisaged by Rule 77 of the Council of Carthage, as well as the clergy’s misconduct, decided to deprive the parish priest of the church in the village Olryne Volodoymr Lomakin the right to wear the pectoral cross, and hierarch Joan Luchyn the right to wear a kamilavka. The court ordered these priests to apologize to the other party of the incident that occurred on June 24, 2012, in Orlyne.
On June 24 Orthodox inhabitants of the village Orlyne led by the priest Volodymyr Lomakin (UOC-MP) made a procession, during which they went to a Protestants' propaganda tent located nearby. Then the priest began to sprinkle holy water on the books, and the people themselves. Then he threw the books to the ground, and young people who participated in the procession dismantled the tent.
A video of the event, which spread on the Internet, caused a flurry of criticism toward the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow. In response, villagers wrote Patriarch Kirill of Moscow asking him to protect them from unjust attacks.
This story is also interesting because neither journalists nor interested persons can find the injured Protestants. The prosecution and police of Sebastopol told RISU correspondent Oleh Savchenko that they did not receive statements from them.
Appeals to defend the priest from “unjust accusations” have appeared on some sites, whose authors position themselves as defenders of the Russian Orthodox Church.
