Eustratiy Zoria: Lavras of UOC belong to the state

Spokesperson for the Kiev Patriarchate Eustratiy Zoria

During the chat on the “Glavred”, the spokesperson for the UOC KP said who all the lavras of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should belong to.

According to Eustratiy Zoria, the state transferred the lavras to the UOC for temporary use. The “principled position” of the clergy of the Kiev Patriarchate is that over time the lavras should belong to the Single Local Church. "Just as the shrines of Russia belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the shrines of Romania – to the Romanian Church."

Zoria assumes that the monks themselves will give voluntary consent to the transfer of the lavras. It will happen inevitably, and it’s not so important whether it will be sooner or later.

But the church property belongs to religious communities as legal entities. At the meetings, the people themselves “will decide which centre to obey — either the Ukrainian Orthodox Church or the Russian one”, the spokesperson of the UOC KP wrote in a chat.

On October 18, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted in favour of transferring St. Andrew’s Church to the Constantinople Patriarchate.

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