A priest of the Lviv diocese was doused with brilliant green during the service

In Ukraine, the priest of the Lviv diocese Mandzyuk was splashed with brilliant green in the face during the service

By Edward Era Barbacena

Lviv: The priest of the city of Stryi in the Lviv region of Ukraine was doused with green paint during the liturgy, according to the information and educational department of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate, citing a message from his daughter on the social network.

According to the priest's daughter, "the so-called nationalists who seize our churches" threw green paint in the face of the rector of the temple, Archpriest Vladimir Mandzyuk.

"Our priests pray for our soldiers, our country. We pray in the Church Slavonic language, we help in any way we can - with money and humanitarian aid," the UOC quotes the message of the clergyman's daughter.

Recently , attacks on churches, clergy and believers of the canonical UOC by nationalists have become more frequent in Ukraine . In addition, in March, a bill was submitted to the Rada to ban the activities of the UOC, seize its real estate and other property. To this, the Russian Orthodox Church stated that the adoption of bills aimed at eliminating the UOC would lead to an aggravation of the crisis and provoke a new round of civil confrontation.

The structure called the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" (OCU) is formed from schismatics, and therefore is not a church in the canonical sense. It was formed at the initiative of the ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in opposition to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate at the end of 2018 at the Unification Cathedral in Kiev , which was attended mainly by schismatics. And in January 2019, the Patriarchate of Constantinople granted the OCU a "tomos of autocephaly". However, the OCU is in fact subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and most of the 15 local Orthodox churches in the world do not recognize it as canonical.