In the coming years, no one will be able to take away Pochayiv Lavra from UOC, - OCU lobbyist

Andriy Smirnov, a lobbyist for the OCU and a freelance expert of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), said that in the short term it will not be possible to take away the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Smirnov believes that the influence of the UOC is very strong in Pochayiv and in the region as a whole. In addition, the OCU has no monks to populate and maintain such large monastery complexes. He spoke about this on the Viche YouTube channel.

“I think that in the coming years no one will be able to take this Lavra away from the UOC. This is an objective thing — whether someone likes it or not. The influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is very strong there: both in the city of Pochayiv and in the region. In addition, the Greek Catholics also claimed the Pochayiv Lavra, and they also stated that they wanted to serve there. So this is a complicated issue. But if we see that there are courts and the state breaks contracts and wants to transfer a monastery to another church, then, firstly, it probably has the right to do so, and secondly, the OCU should be ready to accept this property,” — Smirnov said.

In addition, the DESS expert admitted that the OCU does not have a sufficient number of monks to maintain complexes like the Pochayiv Lavra. In this regard, according to Smirnov, the OCU needs to solve this problem by developing education and cooperation with monasteries of other Local Churches.

“Another thing is where to take monks. It is also true that there is a shortage of monks, so the OCU understands this. Recently, there have been serious changes. A new chairman of the Synodal Commission on Monasteries was appointed, Archbishop Agapit, the abbot of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery. For the first time, he gathered the abbots of the monasteries and wrote a program, realizing that there were problems. We need to raise the level of education. We need to develop contacts with Athos and other Local Churches, etc.”, — he added.

As reported, the head of the Ternopil Diocese of the OCU, Nestor Pysyk, expects that following the results of the work of the Ministry of Culture’s commission on the territory of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra, the state will terminate the lease agreement for the monastery’s premises with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and launch the OCU there. Pysyk believes that after the arrival of the OCU to the Pochayiv Lavra, some of the UOC monks will continue to remain in the monastery as part of their ranks.