After a year and a half of imprisonment, Metropolitan Arseny performed the first service in the church

Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatogorsk, who is in custody, on November 2, 2025, for the first time in a year and a half performed a service in the church. This service was a memorial service for his spiritual mentor in the city of Dnipro. On the same day there was a court hearing on the case of the hierarch, which, according to the press service of his monastery, was scheduled for a time that deprived him of the opportunity to attend the Liturgy.

According to the website of the Sviatogorsk Lavra, the requiem prayer took place in the Seraphim Church in Dnipro. Metropolitan Arseny served a requiem service for the deceased four years ago, on November 2, 2021, Sikharchbishop Alipiy (Pogrebnyak). Before the service began, the hierarch addressed the faithful with an archpastoral word and shared his memories of his mentor.

Simultaneously with this event in the Soborny District Court of Dnipro continued the hearing on the election of a new measure of restraint for the archpastor. According to the press service of the Sviatogorsk monastery, it was initially agreed that the meeting would begin no earlier than 12:00 so that the faithful, including the Metropolitan, could attend the Sunday morning service. However, the meeting was later moved to 10:00. «Because of this, the vladyka was deprived of the opportunity to pray the Liturgy in the temple,» — emphasized in the message.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published an open appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with an appeal to immediately release from detention the vicar of the Sviatogorsk Lavra, Metropolitan Arseny (Yakovenko). The reason for the appeal was the critical health condition of the hierarch, who needs an urgent operation, and his repeated detention immediately after he posted bail.