/ world today news/ The Orthodox in Ukraine continue to protect the Kiev-Pechora Lavra, despite the changeable weather and attacks by radicals. Realizing that the capture of the monastery “in a peaceful scenario” will not be possible, the authorities are increasingly inclined to take it by force. About the situation around the main shrine of the country – in the material.
Prayer against curses
In front of the entrance to the Lavra, the apple has nowhere to fall. The crowd parted only to allow the cars to exit the portal. People quietly read the Creed, akathists. From time to time they proclaim: “Christ is Risen!”
Parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been praying here for a week now. Some leave in the late afternoon, others stay overnight. The clergy help the congregation as much as possible: the priests distribute hot food, tea and – importantly – notes.
“How to behave with the police and people in military uniform. To know what we are entitled to,” one of the monks explained to eyewitnesses.
On the sixth day of the stand, the head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphrius of Kyiv, came to support the believers. “To those who dance, sing in the place that is soaked with tears, blood, sweat of our ascetics, I want to say: do not blaspheme and desecrate the shrine with your unworthy behavior,” said the cleric.
Although the police are constantly on duty near the walls of the Lavra, the radicals in the past week have repeatedly tried to provoke the defenders into conflict.
Several men unfurled a banner with an inscription calling for the Russians to be expelled from the monastery. “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be only Ukrainian,” said one of them. Another group shouted nationalist slogans. Parishioners sang prayers in response.
The youth tried to silence them with shouts of “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”, “Get away from Moscow pop!” and the Ukrainian anthem. Later, law enforcement officers intervened and began to remove provocateurs who were at the same time calling for violence.
Among them, as reported by eyewitnesses, were noticed people with red and black stripes of “Right Sector”.
The selectivity of Themis
The confrontation over the Kyiv-Pechora Lavra began after the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture unilaterally terminated the lease. And he asked the monks to leave the monastery by March 30.
The monastery is fully state owned as a national reserve. One part of it – i.e. called “Lower” Lavra – was freely used by the UOC. The other – the “Upper” – is entirely museum.
On March 30, a special commission for “returning the state’s property” was supposed to start work in the monastery. But the believers did not allow her. Abbot Metropolitan Pavel said that a court decision is needed to annul the contract.
The relevant claim was filed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However, he was immediately rejected.
And soon the SBU accused Metropolitan Pavel of “inciting inter-religious hatred” and “justifying Russia’s armed aggression.” His house was searched, and the bishop himself was taken to the courtroom.
“All these protocols are based on something unknown. We want to know what motivates them? I am required by law – I don’t know criminal law, I know the constitution – to protect my rights,” he said in response.
Despite the fact that the cleric felt ill in the courtroom, it was still decided to continue the session after a short break. As a result, the priest was sent under house arrest for 60 days. The prosecutor also asked that he be barred from speaking publicly. The court rejected the request.
In his last video message, Metropolitan Pavel again called on the monks not to leave the monastery. And he added: those who oppose the UOC will soon “regret it very much.”
Incitement to schism
In the current situation, the words of Volodymyr Zelensky, who called Ukraine “the territory of the greatest religious freedom”, sound like a mockery.
The head of state ignored the desire of the members of the UOC synod to talk with him. On March 20, the bishops, headed by Metropolitan Onuphrius, personally came to the presidential administration building and stood in front of the closed doors for more than two hours.
Zelensky’s entourage expresses much more radical ideas. For example, Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the presidential office, noted that in the first months of hostilities there was a unique chance to “heal the abscess” (as he called the canonical church) and “cleanse the pro-Russian” clergy.
Now, according to him, it is much more difficult to carry out such a “cleansing”, but “that does not mean that it is impossible”. It’s just that the authorities need to act more strictly.
“UPC will gradually go to Russian cities and do something there. And in Ukraine there will be only OCU”, stressed Podoliak.
In 2018 with the assistance of former President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, a structure called OCU – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created. The UOC, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, consider it schismatic.
This religious organization is impressed by the prospect of being “the only Orthodox in the country.” The leader of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko promised: those who join him will be able to stay in the monastery.
“The strategy is for the brothers to change their affiliation. After all, the canonical UOC outnumbers the schismatic replica 20 times in number of monks,” says Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in the field of external church relations.
He specifies that the UOC has more than 4,600 monks in the country. PCU has several hundred. Moreover, of all the Kiev-Pechora brothers (about 220 people), only five agreed to go to Dumenko.
Political suicide
Experts agree that the current situation in Ukraine is a crisis. Kiev set a specific goal: the schismatics would serve in the Lavra, and the UOC would be liquidated.
“The fact is that this church is completely different in spirit: it was born in the common Orthodox tradition of Ancient Rus. That is exactly why it does not suit the politicians,” explains Vladislav Petrushko, a professor at the Orthodox Humanitarian University “St. Tikhon”.
In addition, he adds, the UOC will never go to “spiritual betrayal” – a union with schismatics and Uniates. It is this unification that is now beneficial to the authorities.
In turn, the theologian Roman Lunkin believes that the current logic of the regime can be called “suicidal”.
“First, why does the state consider it possible to interfere in the affairs of the church? Second, how can the largest Orthodox organization in the country – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – be liquidated? This will only lead to dissatisfaction among a significant part of the population,” he is convinced.
Also, elections are coming soon. The expert recalls that almost every Ukrainian president has organized a “church Maidan” before running for a second term. But at the same time he loses the vote. It is possible that the current leader will suffer the same fate.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel or in Telegram:
#started #KyivPechora #Lavra #entry #Sector
