OCU “bishop”: UOC monks to be evicted from Pochaiv, OCU monastery to be set

The Pochaiv Lavra and Nestor Pysyk. Photo: Dukhovna Velych Lvova

The head of the Ternopil Eparchy of the OCU Nestor Pysyk said that after the inspection of the Ministry of Culture on the territory of the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra, the state will break the lease agreement with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Lavra will move to the jurisdiction of his religious structure, reports the resoirce “Dukhovna Velych Lvova” (“The Spiritual Greatness of Lviv”).

He shared his information on how the commission of the Ministry of Culture works:

“They are quiet, there is no movement of any kind. An interdepartmental commission of the Ministry of Culture and representatives of the state historical and architectural reserve and from the regional department of culture are there. I know that they found a number of violations. Both the regional administration and the Security Service are studying them. All this is gradually being given to the court. As for the position of the Lavra management, so far there are no reactions or any changes. They take the same position as before,” said Pysyk.

He also added that “if everything goes the right way”, part of the UOC monacs will join the OCU and these people will remain to live in the monastery, and the rest of the brethren who remained loyal to the UOC will be evicted.

“We hope that there will be a monastery of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is likely that at least a small part of those monks will remain and continue their ministry and monastic life. Gradually new novices will come there and the brotherhood will be restored in the same number. But qualitatively it will be quite different,” Pysyk summarized.

The head of the Ternopil Eparchy of the OCU stated that the trials on the Pochaiv Lavra about the termination of the lease agreement with the UOC can last for years. And he stated that the Lavra is still full of UOC parishioners, and he does not observe the outflow of monks and novices from the monastery.

As reported, the media started claiming the eviction of the UOC from the Pochaiv Lavra after the Ministry of Culture inspections, as the state is looking for a reason to terminate the contract.

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