KIEV, December 2. /TASS/. The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra has been registered as a monastery within the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), with OCU leader Epiphanius (Dumenko) heading the monastery as a legal entity, press secretary of the OCU, Archbishop of Chernigov and Nezhin Yevstratiy Zorya reported on Friday.
The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is currently under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). However, now the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra legal entity has been created within the OCU with relevant information filed with the United State Registry, the clerical official wrote on his Facebook page (owned by US corporation Meta, outlawed as an extremist organization in Russia).
Decisions by state bodies are necessary in order for the monastery to change hands from the UOC to the OCU, but now a legal entity has been created, which can use its property and premises.
The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is one of Russia's first monasteries and is the oldest monastery in modern-day Ukraine. It was founded in the 11th century. Currently, the monastery's territory covers over 20 hectares. Recently, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies conducted a series of raids against UOC churches, including at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims that "pro-Russian literature and millions in cash," as well as materials denying the existence of Ukraine" were found.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s president, Vladimir Zelensky, issued a decree to enact a resolution of the National Security and Defense Council on Certain Aspects of the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine and the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions), essentially aimed at banning the UOC. More specifically, he issued orders to submit a bill to parliament on banning "religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation," stepping up "measures to identify and counter subversive activities by Russian special services in Ukraine’s religious sphere," and scrutinizing the Charter governing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for signs of ecclesiastical and canonic links with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Church in Ukraine
The UOC is a self-governing church within the Moscow Patriarchate. Its special status is enshrined in the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as in the Charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church itself. The UOC Council, which took place in Kiev on May 27, stated that it had introduced "additions and amendments to the Charter on governing the UOC, which indicate the UOC’s complete independence."
In 2018, after a Unification Council in Kiev, the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was created from two schismatic organizations, which later obtained autocephaly from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. The Russian Orthodox Church and the UOC do not recognize the canonical status of this religious organization. After the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, its supporters began to seize the UOC’s church buildings by force.