Ministry of Culture tells how it will “resubordinate” Pochaev Lavra

Briefing of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine

Each community will decide for itself which jurisdiction to have. This was stated by the Director of the Department of the Ministry of Culture for Religious and Nationalities Andrei Yurash at a briefing by the Ministry of Culture, as reported by the correspondent of the UOJ.

Asked how the “resubordination” of the Pochaev Lavra would technically look, Andrei Yurash referred to bill No. 4281, and also reminded that Ukraine has an article on freedom of conscience and a religious organization, which a priori foresees this step, therefore nothing is new.

“The question is that this process is when each religious organization acquires the rights of a legal entity and acts accordingly as an institution and bears full responsibility for its property ... There is no mechanism for implementing this principle, therefore, the draft law 4128 provides just a scheme, according to which each religious organization can change its jurisdiction. The law spells out the steps, the necessary circumstances and conditions for the implementation of this process so that later there would be no speculation as fas as this is concerned.”

The official said that the scheme itself, according to the concept of the bill 4128, involves a general meeting of a religious organization.

“This is the most democratic principle. In order to avoid doubts and controversies, only members of this organization should take part in the meeting and not outsiders are allowed. There are several criteria for this: the principle of self-identification with the religious community, and secondly, the regular participation in the liturgical practices that the community performs. Third, the executive structure of this religious organization must confirm the authority of the meeting and all its members. When all these conditions are met, a will (voting – Ed.) occurs,” explained Yurash.

Thus, it can be concluded that, according to Andrei Yurash, resubordination of the Pochaev Lavra can occur only if people who identify themselves as brothers of the monastery voluntarily vote to transfer to another confessional jurisdiction.

Antichurch bill #4128 is on amending the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" (regarding changes in subordination by religious communities) which, according to most experts, will legalize religious raiding in the country. According to the opinions of lawyers, European and international legal practice does not accept draft law No. 4128, which provides the right to vote at community meetings to persons who were not accepted as members of the community management bodies.

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