Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun proposed his “most extravagant, least realizable, but most true both canonically and historically” decision on the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. He wrote about this on his own Telegram channel.

“The current management structure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is as follows: it is formally headed by the Holy Archimandrite, Metropolitan Onufry, who delegates management rights to his governor, Metropolitan Pavel. Both, in my opinion, became the main cause of the crisis faced by the monastic community of the Lavra. Both institutions of governing this community do not make sense either canonically or historically,” the archimandrite noted.

He added that “historically, the Lavra is a group of rather disparate communities that existed quite independently from each other, and even more so from the bishop of the place in which they resided. As a “supervisor”, which is the literal meaning of the word “bishop”, this group of communities chose for themselves an “archimandrite”, who was not a bishop, but his counterpart for monastic communities. Two important features of the archimandrite ministry: the archimandrites were elected by the communities, and not appointed by the bishops, and their accountability to the bishops of the place where the Lavra was located was very conditional.”

Cyril Hovorun believes that in connection with this, the monastic community of the KPL “should refuse the services of those representatives of the “hierarchy” who provoked the current crisis, and elect not a “priest archimandrite”, but simply an “archimandrite” in the original sense of this rank. It should be the choice of the brethren exclusively.”

“Within one Lavra, there can be two or more Eucharistic communities, where monks, in principle, can commemorate different bishops. Let’s not forget that Lavra historically is not one community, but a group of communities. Under the conditions of the KPL, this may mean that communities that commemorate Metropolitan Onufry and Metropolitan Epifaniy can coexist in it. These communities can be parts of one “lavra” in its historical sense and be under the general “supervision” of an elected archimandrite,” the theologian said.

“This is my solution to the Lavra problem. In my opinion, this problem is providential in order to return the original meaning and order to the arrangement of monastic life, as well as to become an impetus for the consolidation of Orthodoxy in Ukraine,” Cyril Hovorun emphasized.