www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News UOC expelled from Kyiv Caves Lavra

It happened.
The UOC is ordered to vacate the monastery by March 29th.

Announcement on Kyiv Caves Lavra website. [lavra.ua]

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Fully Expelled From Kiev Caves Lavra By End Of March. [orthochristian.com]

Not to exornerate the UOC-MP of their misdeeds, but I really feel this action fuels the flame of Russia's pique with the Ukrainian government.

QUOTE" ......"Not to exornerate the UOC-MP of their misdeeds, but I really feel this action fuels the flame of Russia's pique with the Ukrainian government.".....QUOTE

There is no doubt that it will, but at this point, does it really matter? The Russian regime will never be accepting of any Ukrainian government that is not a puppet of their own. The flame is already an inferno.
In my opinion.... ideally.....decisions about access to the Lavra should be related to spirituality. However, given the the MP's allegiance/ties to Putin's regime, this action seems inevitable.

The "Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate" has affirmed it has broken all ties with Moscow. And now patriarch Kirill has complained that the Kyiv Caves Lavra "is being taken from us."

Who is kidding who here?

The Kyiv Caves Lavra has never been the "property" of the Moscow Patriarchate or its satellite the UOC-MP. It is actually the property of Ukraine itself and the UOC-MP has had a rental agreement with the government to occupy the monastery of the Lavra.

The Ukrainian government has chosen not to renew that rental agreement with the UOC-MP - that is all. There are many monks at the Lavra who have indicated their wish to leave the Moscow patriarchate and join with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. They will be able to stay put - no problem.

All kinds of pro-Russian propaganda, including the presence of over fifty persons at the Lavra who are not monastics and are not citizens of Ukraine, have been discovered.

They are a national security risk and it is high time they high-tailed it out of that great national Shrine of Ukraine!

And the West didn't help overthrow the pro-Russia, albeit democratically elected Ukrainian government in 2014?

Let's not be one-sided here.

Here is an interesting, fact- filled article about the 2014 events in Ukraine surrounding what has come to be known as the " Revolution of Dignity" or the " Maidan Revolution".

 Interestingly, it is part of the "Bulwark" podcast. The mission of The Bulwark- according to  it's Editor in Chief, Charlie Sykes- is  " ........ to create a home for rational, principled, fact-based center-right voices.........." 

This article attempts to debunk baseless generalizations and to show ( as the final paragraph states):
....."the pro-Russia narrative in Ukraine does not add up—whether it comes from actual Kremlin propagandists or from anti-establishment “dissidents” and “skeptics” in the West."

I think it's high time that anti- establishment/skeptics need to stop playing into false narratives that are pro-Russian and "anti- West"...... unless of course, they are "far from center- right". Then false narratives become their alternative realities.


The article:


https://www.thebulwark.com/what-really-happened-in-ukraine-in-2014-and-since-then/

Dear Mr Navy Vet,

If you are an American, I would strongly suggest you take a deeper look into how the Yanukovych government, an arm of the Kremlin, conducted itself in its heyday.

Yanukovych promised to do what he would never contemplate - namely, move Ukraine away from Russia and toward Europe. Yet he reversed his promise and went toward Russia.

That is why the Ukrainian people revolted against him. The stakes for them were too high and final if they hadn't.

The stakes are still high for them as they continue to suffer genocidal destruction in their struggle to kick the Putinista terrorists out.

And they will nomatter the cost to them. The alternative is their utter destruction.

If you are so against the West - Go East!

I read a news item just yesterday that said the Ukrainian government would not try to forcefully remove the UOC-MP monks from the Lavra. I think that conforms to His Beatitude Sviatoslav's request and is the Christian thing to do.

On March 29th, the UOC-MP called together a crowd around the Lavra and Metropolitan Paul who is the archimandrite of the UOC-MP publicly threatened and called down Divine retribution on the president and his family for throwing out 220 monks into the street . . .

He also bullied a female journalist and yelled at all others gathered there saying he won't budge until his court case is dealt with some time in April.

This Metropolitan has said his church is now "separated" from the Moscow patriarchate. As it turns out, that is a . . .misrepresentation of the state of affairs since the MP Metropolitan of Kyiv continues to commemorate the MP.

And if they are truly "separated" from the MP, then they are an uncanonical church because their own charter explicitly states that autocephaly may only be granted BY the MP and therefore their Primate's move to "separate" constitutes an uncanonical act.

Then why not enter into full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople? Why this continuing paranoia against the EP? Is the EP not Orthodox? Why does the UOC-MP continue to consider itself not in communion with the EP? Who is it really in communion with then?

The UOC-MP could ameliorate this entire situation immediately by doing what so many of its own previous parishes and priests have done by going under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

But they refuse and they do so because they prefer to be in communion with the MP and its Russky Mir/Russian World ideology where the Moscow patriarch has blessed the terrorist aggression against the people of Ukraine (who include Russians as half my family there are ethnic Russian). The UOC-MP Synod could show leadership and condemn the actions of the Moscow patriarchate by repudiating it and entering into communion with the EP,, which is the Mother Church of Kyiv and Ukraine.

By doing so, they have shown themselves to be who they truly are - compliant servants of the MP and of the Russky Mir ideology that has thrown the Orthodox World into such a turmoil and has resulted in the war of aggression and terrorism on the "brother nation" of Ukraine.

Have they no shame?! They are upset about 220 monks being thrown into the street (they have plenty of monasteries to go to) while MILLIONS of innocent civilians have lost their homes due to bomb and rocket attacks by the Putin regime with the support and blessing of the MP.

Hopefully, they will leave the national Orthodox Shrine of Ukraine as soon as possible.

Perhaps it all boils down to priority. 

Are your traditions an aspect of your faith or is your faith an aspect of your traditions?

I view the EP as an assembly in which no one, particular culture is more important than Universal Orthodoxy.

An over- simplification, perhaps......

Dear Hutsul,

Very well put - I like that! It applies to a number of people in my parish with respect to the calendar issue!

You are good!!