In Kashira, Moscow Region, an Orthodox church may be sold under the hammer

The Church of the Great Martyr Nikita in Kashira, recognized as an architectural monument of the 19th century, but then privatized by the owners of a hosiery factory, can be sold on account of the debt of a bankrupt enterprise. Now the fate of the temple must be decided by the Moscow Regional Arbitration Court.

In the early 1990s part of the complex of the Kashirsky monastery was transferred to the Moscow diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the church of the Great Martyr Nikita remained at the disposal of the factory. In 1997, they started talking about the transfer of production from the territory of the monastery. This did not happen, but the owners of the enterprise hurried to privatize the church - and with violations, as one of the lawyers representing the interests of the diocese and the city administration in the arbitration court told the Nasha Versiya publication. In 2006, the Registration Chamber entered the building in the register as a private property.

In the same 2006, the factory went bankrupt, and the temple was put up for auction. Attempts by representatives of the diocese to negotiate the transfer of the building with the bankruptcy trustee involved in the bankruptcy of the enterprise were unsuccessful. In particular, the proposal to buy out the building for the initial amount indicated in the auction announcement - 2 million 200 thousand rubles was rejected. As a result, the believers appealed to the arbitration court. They were supported by the city administration.

According to Vitaly Kotsenko, archpriest of the Kashirsky district of the Moscow diocese, there are rumors that the temple has already been sold. In any case, the auction organizers are not interested in openness. Attempts by representatives of the diocese, accompanied by lawyers, to get into the premises in which the auction was to be held, ended in failure.

Now believers are reassured only by the fact that the arbitration court has already seized the building of the church. “Such a court order insures us against a situation in which, as they say, the perpetrators would no longer be found: when the building would be sold to private individuals, and the previous owners would no longer have anything to do with it,” notes Fr. Vitaly. By the way, he has already received a general power of attorney for the building from the city administration. In addition, the prosecutor's office intervened in the case - it turned out that for the entire time that the temple belonged to the factory, it had never been overhauled, which is a violation of the rules for operating an architectural monument.

Ataman of the Cossack troops Valery Nalimov has already promised to protect the temple if necessary. Activists among the parishioners offered to start a protest action, but so far Fr. Vitaly spoke out against such actions. "This issue must be resolved peacefully," he declared. "Nothing can be achieved by evil and war. Let this land remain holy and not be defiled. We now need only legal assistance and the help of society."

Sources

• MEDIA MONITORING: There is no such thing as a holy place. They want to sell an Orthodox church on account of the debt of a hosiery factory // Portal-Credo.ru. 2007. August 14. (Article from the publication "Our Version" for August 13.)