The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve has ordered monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to leave the monastery buildings until March 29. According to some reports, the clergy have already started to get out of things, although the UOC-MP leadership has said that they are not going to be expelled from the monastery. RTVI collected the main part of the conflict around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
Schism of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine
In 1990, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church established an autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church within the Moscow Patriarchate. For nearly two years, Metropolitan Filaret (Denisenko) was the head of the UOC-MP, but in May 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt to achieve full independence from the Ukrainian church (autocephaly), he was removed from his post. Filaret did not obey the request of the Russian Orthodox Church to leave , as a result of which he was defrocked.
The same year, with the support of the Ukrainian authorities, he proclaimed the creation of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of the Patriarchate of Kiev (UOC-KP). All the local Orthodox churches, including Constantinople, refused to recognize him.
In 1997, the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated Filaret from the Church and anathematized him. Since the mid-2000s, the clergy of the UOC-KP began to turn to the Patriarch of Constantinople with a request for recognition of the formed church as a local autocephaly.
In 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople canceled the Conciliar Charter of 1686, which effectively transferred the metropolis of Kiev to the submission of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople explained that in reality it only gave the Patriarch of Moscow the right to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev, but the Ukrainian Church remained under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (center left) attends a closed synod of three Ukrainian Orthodox Churches to approve the United Church charter and elect leaders of St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev. Ukraine, December 15, 2018Mikhail Palinchak / AP
In the same year, at the Unification Council in Kiev, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was proclaimed, which included representatives of the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Orthodox Church Ukrainian. In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) received a tomos to grant it autocephaly from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in response to requests from Ukrainian authorities and some religious associations and individual clergy.
After that, the Moscow Patriarchate, which considers Ukraine its canonical territory, condemned the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and broke off Eucharistic communion with it. Even before the Tomos of Autocephaly was granted to the OCU, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church considered the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople as “anti-canonical” and called the OCU a schismatic church.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate did not recognize the results of the Unification Council and called the OCU a non-canonical Church. The UOC-MP said the OCU emerged as a result of state interference in Church affairs and also called on the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople not to interfere in internal affairs of the UOC.
On February 24, 2022, the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry sentenced military operations in Ukraine and called on the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kirill, who blessed the special operation, to influence the Russian authorities in order to peacefully resolve the conflict. In May 2022, the Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kiev proclaimed its complete independence and independence from the Moscow Patriarchate.
What happens in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
The pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra belonging to it, began in the fall of 2022. The priests were accused of links with Russia and a pro-Russian position. Searches began in the Lavra and a number of other UOC-MP objects – the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it found “pro-Russian literature” allegedly used for “propaganda of the “Russian world”” in seminaries and parochial schools, as well as large sums of money. The searches are explained by “a systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine”. In the Kremlin, such actions by the Ukrainian security forces were called “military actions against Russian orthodoxy”.
In December 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would submit a bill to the Verkhovna Rada to ban the work of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence of the Russian Federation”, after which a group special work was created to check the facilities of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate. As a result of his work, the citizenship of 13 priests was suspended. In addition, 50 criminal cases were opened against the clergy.
The SBU inspects the Cathedral of the Assumption, Pechersk Lavra in Kiev, Ukraine, November 22, 2022Efrem Lukatsky / AP
“We will ensure the full independence of our state. In particular, we will ensure spiritual independence. We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul,” Zelenskyyy said.
At the end of 2022, the Ukrainian authorities informed the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry, that from January 2023 the term of the lease for the Main Temple of the Lavra, the Cathedral of the Assumption and the Church of the refectory, would come to an end. In March 2023, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Museum-Reserve announced the termination of the agreement with the UOC on the use of the Lower Lavra. The clergy was ordered to leave the monastery and the residence of the UOC primate until March 29.
The Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, founded in 1051, today is divided into two parts – the Upper Lavra and the Lower Lavra. The lower part, where the monastery and caves with relics are located, is administered by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC), and the upper part is considered the national historical and cultural reserve and is administered by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
Head of the museum-reserve Alexander Rudnik in his letter declared that the working group found violations of the terms of the agreement on the use of state property by the monastery. The text of the letter itself is currently not available on Lavra’s website.
The rector of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, said the monks “do not intend to be expelled and will not be.” At the same time, March 16, on the website of the Ukrainian government appeared petition against the expulsion from the UOC-MP monastery of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
On March 20, the UOC hierarchs arrived at the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy . however, he did not report to the representatives of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The priests had to leave the square after about two hours due to the announcement of an air raid. The clergy wanted to convey to the president the position of the UOC regarding the expulsion from the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
What will happen to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
After the departure of the UOC clergy from the monastery, a commission will start working there, which is to revise the “museum exhibits”, including the relics of the saints, by May 15, said the Ukrainian minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko. According to him, we are talking about 829 cultural values that the reserve transferred to the Lavra for free use.
Since March 21, the Ukrainian authorities have closed access to the near and far caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where the relics of the saints are kept, to ensure the work of the commission for the identification and preservation of the museum pieces . The Chairman of the Synodal Department of Information and Education of the UOC, the Metropolitan of Nizhyn and Pryluky Kliment (Supper) expressed concern that the Minister of Culture regards the incorruptible relics of the saints as “cultural values” and “museum exhibits”.
“After all, in the totalitarian Soviet era, atheist authorities widely carried out campaigns to open the relics in order to show their state of preservation. These campaigns were accompanied by a desecration of the shrine, the relics were taken out of the arches , the covers have been removed from it for a detailed description and display in the showcases of the museum, ”- estimate his UOC website.
The closure of the UOC caves has been called an “unprecedented manifestation of the restriction of the rights of Ukrainian believers”. In addition, for the work of the commission, from March 21, access to the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Annozachatievsky Church and the Church in Honor of the Cathedral of All the saints of the caves (warm temple) has been suspended.
However, on March 20 reported that the monks began to take things out of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and the library was partially distributed to parishioners. Metropolitan Clement said that in his opinion there is no legal basis for the expulsion of monks from the monastery, it can only be done by a court decision. He also noted that no document would confirm the words of the Ukrainian Minister of Culture about the need to break the contract with the monastery.
