Observing the discrimination and harassment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the hierarchs of the Local Orthodox Churches express their support to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, the episcopate, clergy and all believers of the UOC. This was reported by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.

The hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, Archbishop Daniel of Chicago and the Midwest, commented on the intentions of the Ukrainian authorities to evict the monks of the UOC from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and urged to pray for the brethren of the monastery.

Archbishop Daniel emphasized that the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is the cradle of monasticism and spirituality of Kievan Rus, and the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who restored the monastery in 1988, are the guardians of this holy place.

The American hierarch called on the clergy and believers of the Midwestern diocese at this time to “strengthen their prayers and fasting, imploring the Lord to have mercy on the brethren of the Lavra and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

Bishop Irenaeus of London and Western Europe published an appeal in which he stated that the expulsion of monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and other oppression of the rights of the clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the same thing that the Bolsheviks did.

Bishop emphasized that the monks of the Lavra are not politicians and are not enemies of either the state or the people.

“These are humble people who have chosen a life of self-denial in following God, preserving the spiritual heritage of a place that has been sacred for Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Orthodox Christians around the world for more than a millennium,” he said.