Head of the DESS: The Pochaiv Lavra Must Withdraw from the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has officially notified the leadership of the Pochaiv Lavra of the need to sever ties with the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. Otherwise, the agency is prepared to initiate legal proceedings to shut down the religious institution.

According to the “Suspilne” web at DESS Head Viktor Yelensky emphasized that the directive requires the monastery to withdraw from the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC, and requires the monastery’s abbot, Metropolitan Vladimir, to withdraw from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. These measures are being implemented as part of the enforcement of the law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations,” which prohibits religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in the country.

According to the official, the authorities do not aim to completely ban the monasteries’ activities but are offering them the opportunity to officially sever ties with Moscow. Similar directives have already been sent to the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as to a number of other religious sites, including the Holosiivskyi Hermitage and the Korets Monastery. The ministry emphasized that such inspections and directives will be sent to all religious organizations found to have ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.

“It (the monastery—Ed.) must submit a decision to withdraw from the Kyiv Metropolis, since the Kyiv Metropolis is directly linked to the Russian Orthodox Church. And its head must submit a decision to withdraw from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. That is, the head of the Pochaiv Lavra is a member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. And we are not demanding anything else from him other than that he submit a decision—a statement—declaring that he is withdrawing from the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church and is no longer a member of that body,” — the official noted.

As a reminder, the Ternopil Regional Prosecutor’s Office previously initiated an investigation aimed at expropriating, for the benefit of the state, a 12-hectare plot of land on which the monastic complex of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is located — the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra. According to the prosecutor’s office, the transfer of the land to the monastery for use was carried out in violation of the law, and the office is therefore preparing a lawsuit.