St. Andrew Church parishioners to Cherkasy mayor: We haven’t gone anywhere!
Anatoliy Bondarenko could not explain to parishioners who supposedly decided to join the OCU.
During the violent seizure of St. Andrew’s Church in Cherkasy on May 6, 2025, a conversation took place between the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the city’s mayor, Anatoliy Bondarenko. A video of the talk was published on social media by the Cherkasy Eparchy press service.
The mayor, who arrived at the church, accused the parishioners and clergy of trying to create a “scene for Russian TV channels”.
Addressing the gathered faithful, Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv suggested they ask Bondarenko directly what was happening.
“Anatoliy Vasylovych is saying that supposedly some parish decided to take this St. Andrew’s Church away from us. Have any of you heard about such a parish voting?” he asked.
The parishioners unanimously responded that they knew nothing of any vote and affirmed that they themselves are the real religious community: “Show us the people who signed it. This is our church – not yours, Anatoliy Bondarenko!”
The mayor claimed he had an extract with a decision from the religious community of St. Andrew the First-Called. Once again, the parishioners asked him to name the individuals who supposedly belonged to the UOC and had voted for the “transition” to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).
“Who are these people? Show us the ones who signed! Did we participate in any meetings?” the parishioners asked in disbelief, assuring that they had not been involved in any such decision.
As reported by the UOJ, although St. Andrew's Church legally belongs to the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC, the authorities attributed a fake, non-existent OCU community to it and, through fraudulent means, transferred the church to the Dumenko structure.
