On May 23, 2022, the OCU Synod decided to “form as part of the religious entity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) the religious organization «Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (monastery) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church” (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine)»”.
And also decided to apply to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a request to transfer one of the temples of the Upper Lavra and its individual premises for use for worship and monastic activities of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the UOC (OCU).
On this occasion, first of all, we emphasize that in its decision to establish the OCU male monastery in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the OCU Synod actually duplicates the name of the UOC male monastery currently operating in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Also, this decision confirms the aggressive policy of church looting at the level of the Holy Synod of the OCU, which has been introduced since the beginning of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which consists in the illegal seizure of churches and religious organizations belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Since the 1990s, through the efforts of believers and monks of the monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, churches, cells and liturgical life in the monastery have been restored, which continues to this day.
According to the statistics of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (SESS), as of January 1, 2021, the network of OCU monasteries consists of 79 monasteries, which include 233 monks, which in total is 2.9 people per monastery. This information indicates that today the OCU does not need to form additional monasteries, since there are practically no people in the OCU who want to live a monastic life, and the vast majority of OCU monasteries exist only nominally on paper.
In this regard, we are inclined to conclude that the decision of the OCU synod to establish a monastery is another attempt to form an artificial monastery, which does not have the goal of organizing monastic life, but creates a potential threat of hostility on religious grounds.
