Lavra [Ukraine] Abbot: Muslims and Catholics Treat Us Better Than Our Own Gov’t

Pravoslavie ^ | 1/2/23

[marshmallow]

Muslims and Catholics allow the Orthodox access to holy sites and holy relics, but the Ukrainian government prevents its own people from entering their own churches, the abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra commented on New Year’s Eve before the start of the last service in the monastery’s trapeza church.

Last week the government announced that it would no longer allow the Orthodox Church to use the Dormition Cathedral and the trapeza Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius in the upper part of the Lavra, which the state never returned to the Church after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“Today we’re leaving the territory of the Upper Lavra. We’re leaving the churches that we’ve filled with prayer at the behest of wayward lords,” His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, the abbot of the monastery said. The service was broadcast by the First Cossack channel.

“The Muslims have always allowed us and still allow us to pray at the tomb of St. Nicholas. The Catholics allow us to pray at the tomb of the Holy Apostles, at the relics of St. Nicholas. But our people, who imagine themselves to be the center of the universe, expel us from our own holy sites on our own land,” His Eminence said.

He also called on the people to pay no attention to the provocations organized by the police and the Security Service of Ukraine.

[Hootowl99]

I think this is a partial (biased?) description of what is going on within the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

The OC in Ukraine has as its head Metropolitan Krill in Moscow, i. e. the Russian Orthodox Church. Krill is a “former” KGB officer as is his BFF Putin. Some number of Ukrainian priests and others have provided moral and material support to the Russian cause.

An insurgency within the Church is seeking is seeking to break away from the Russian Orthodox and change their affiliation to a different Metropolitan. I’ve read a mention of a Metropolitan located in one of the Baltic nations. In other words, clean their religious house of Russian influences.

So…. It’s accurate that the Russian OC is likely to be shut down by the government in Ukraine. Shut down for Russian partisan actions against the Ukraine nation.

It’s also accurate that patriotic Ukrainian Orthodox faithful are looking for a new religious home.

The OP article is way short of context. My opinions…

[sloanrb]

It’s actually as bad as Monty Python “Life of Brian” and the Peoples Front of Judaea

There is the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” which is controlled by Russia. Then you have the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” which has broken away from Moscow. It is the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” that has been banned

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Church_of_Ukraine