The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy created a commission that will check the use of the Pochaiv Lavra by the UOC MP.
This was announced by the Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko on the air of the telethon.
"Commissions have already been established to check the use of facilities both in the Pochaiv Lavra and on the territory of the Chernihiv Reserve, where agreements regarding the use of some reserve facilities have already been suspended," he noted.
According to him, the Pochaiv Lavra is on the balance sheet of the Kremenets-Pochaiv historical and architectural reserve — this will affect the verification process.
"There is a different situation than with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, because there isThe Kremenets Reserve, there is the Pochaiv Lavra, and there is a mutual relationship between them. In the Kremenets Nature Reserve, one of the temples has an expired usage agreement. However, representatives of the ministry are not allowed there, the court is currently considering the case. In addition, the Ministry of Culture has suspended agreements regarding the use of some objects on the territory of the "Ancient Chernihiv" reserve, Tkachenko said.
The government official added that the Ministry of Culture is in a civilized dialogue" with representatives of the UOC MP in Chernihiv.
- There are three lavras in Ukraine: Kyiv-Pecherska (in the capital), Pochaivska (Ternopil region) and Sviatohirska (Donetsk region). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is currently holding services in the Pochaiv Lavra.
- On December 2, 2022, the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was registered as a monastery within the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
- On March 10, 2023, the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" announced that, effective March 29, it was terminating the agreement with the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the free use of buildings located on the territory of the reserve. The warning concerns the buildings of the lower Lavra, where the menʼs monastery is located. In the Upper Lavra, the UOC MP used the Dormition Cathedral and the Tabernacle Church, but the contract for their lease expired on December 31, 2022, and was not renewed. These two temples have been returned to state management since January 5.
- The UOC MP called the warning received from the reserve "another ultimatum." On March 13, Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) said that the monks have no intention of moving out of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.