“We will have 30 monks there": Head of Ternopil Eparchy of OCU tells about plans for Holy Spirit Monastery of UOC in Pochayiv

The head of the Ternopil Diocese of the OCU, Nestor Pysyk, commented on the recent decision of the OCU Synod, according to which the organization founded the “Pochayiv Holy Spirit Monastery” with the subsequent registration of a clone legal entity with the same name and address location as the UOC monastery. Pysyk claims that the court hearings regarding the monastery, which are ongoing between the state and the monastic community of the UOC, are coming to an end, after which the OCU will occupy the complex of premises of the Pochayiv Holy Spirit Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He said this in an interview with Suspilne.Ternopil.

“There were violations in the way the Moscow Patriarchate uses the premises of the Holy Spirit Skete of Pochayiv. Courts are ongoing: the state, the Kremenets-Pochayiv State Architectural Reserve. The court hearings are almost over and there are decisions on most of the buildings that belong to the complex. The state, the people, and the people want these buildings not to be empty, for these churches to function and for the monastery to have life, for services to be held there, and for monks to live there. Therefore, there is an opinion that the Ukrainian church should settle this monastery and that monks of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine should live there,” – said Pysyk.

When asked about who will live in the monastery taken away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Pysyk said that he plans to settle 30 monks there. At the same time, he does not mind if some of the monks of the UOC want to join the OCU monastery.

“Approximately, the monastery is designed for 30 monks. I’m not ready to say how many there will be at once, but I think that over time the number of brothers will grow. All monasteries start with a small number. None of them started with a dozen monks, it always started with a few, but gradually the brethren increased, and I think the same will happen with the Holy Spirit Monastery in Pochayiv,” – added the head of the Ternopil Diocese of the OCU.

Earlier, we reported that the OCU is going to appropriate the complex of premises of the Pochayiv Holy Spirit Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This conclusion follows from the decision of the organization’s Synod to register a clone legal entity with the same name and address location as the UOC monastery.