A court in Kyiv recognized as legal the termination of the agreement between the monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.
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This was announced on August 9 by the Ministry of Culture.
The Economic Court of the city of Kyiv refused to satisfy the claims of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (monastery) of the UOC. This religious organization wanted to continue to use religious buildings and other property of the Lower Lavra, which is state property, the report says.
During the inspection, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy revealed a number of violations of the agreement concluded between the UOC and the reserve, which became the basis for its termination.
The reserve terminated the agreement on the gratuitous use of property with the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (monastery) on March 29, 2023. Termination of the Agreement unilaterally is provided for by the conditions specified in it.
The entire complex of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra will be transferred to the state before the end of the year. Director of the reserve Maxim Ostapenko said this earlier in an interview with Ukrinform.
I would be happy if everything was completed by the end of the year. I mean the transfer of cultural heritage sites and relics. These processes are interconnected, but still the transfer of the property complex is one story, and the other is the relics in the caves, Ostapenko believes.
According to him, the former leaders of the monastery planned to turn the Lavra into the residence of the Moscow Patriarchate and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian markers are everywhere here, starting from the grave of Stolypin and the mayors and clerks who were buried here in imperial times. They never say that half of the churches, in particular the Lower Lavra, were built at the expense of the Cossack colonels, but they honor the Matrona of Moscow,” added the head of the reserve.
Recall that more than half of the Ukrainians surveyed by the Razumkov Center commissioned by ZN.UA said they want the UOC-MP to be completely expelled from the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra. Another 8% of respondents agree to concelebrate in the temples of the Lavra of the UOC-MP and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and 6.2% of respondents believe that they should continue to belong undividedly to their former owners.
Source: Racurs
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