"We will give excursions": officials tell how they plan to use the cathedral in Kaniv taken from the UOC

Representatives of the Shevchenko National Reserve spoke about how they will use the Holy Dormition (St. George) Cathedral of the Cherkasy Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kaniv, which was recently taken away from the local religious community of the UOC. According to officials, first of all, the cathedral will be restored, after which excursions will be held in the church and, possibly, religious events will be resumed, which will be held by representatives of the OCU. This is reported by Suspilne.Cherkasy.

“There will be a survey of easel painting, monumental painting, the state of preservation of mosaics, frescoes — this is something that is of great importance to scientists. We are waiting to create a commission, to involve restoration workshops from Kyiv — specialists who understand these paintings, specialists from St. Sophia of Kyiv, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra,” — explained Lyudmyla Sokur, scientific secretary of the Shevchenko National Reserve.

In his turn, Dmytro Bohachev, legal counsel of the Shevchenko National Reserve, said that after the restoration and necessary research, excursions and other program activities will be held in the church. Also, the reserve does not rule out that representatives of the OCU will be able to hold religious events in the church, but they will be selected through a competition.

“All stages will be passed, proposals from interested people will be submitted, and all interested legal entities will be able to be involved in this process and eventually have the opportunity to use this monument for religious worship. After that, they plan to resume services in the cathedral. The service will be conducted by a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rector of the church will be elected on a competitive basis,” — the official added.

Earlier, we reported that after lengthy legal battles between the religious community of the Holy Dormition (St. George) Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kaniv and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in the local Shevchenko National Reserve, the UOC believers had to leave the church. The courts that participated in the proceedings did not take into account the arguments of the Church, finally deciding to expropriate the cathedral in favor of the state.