UOC obliged to vacate a number of churches and monasteries in Chernihiv

Yelets Assumption Convent. Photo: wikimedia.org

The UOC must vacate the Trinity and Yelets shrines, as well as the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernihiv by March 27, 2022. This was stated in a letter to Metropolitan Amvrosiy of Chernihiv, published by the Dumskaya publication, acting general director of the reserve Vladimir Khomich reported.

Khomich explained the need to vacate the territory by the fact that back in September 2021, the terms of agreements on the use of architectural monuments of the reserve by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church expired.

The secretary of the Chernihiv diocese, Father Ihor, told the UOJ that the UOC was offered to conclude new agreements with the reserve, however, on conditions that he called "criminal".

According to him, the new contracts provide for a very high cost of rent, which the diocese will not be able to pay:

“We were offered to sign new leases under the new legislation. The law says that if a religious community used the premises, then the cost of rent will be one hundredth percent of its market value. To date, the Trinity Monastery is worth about UAH 200 million,” he says. “If this is one hundredth percent, then I agree, we’d afford it, if it were on a permanent basis. However, in five years this rate will change and will be 7 percent. Signing this lease is a crime against believers and the Church. After all, we don’t have 14 million, it is unaffordable for us.”

At the same time, the secretary of the diocese noted that lawyers are preparing relevant appeals to the courts in order to protect the inhabitants of the monastery and the clergy of the temples.

“A lot of nuns live in the Yelets Convent, all churches are active, and services are held every day. There is a whole complex, a cathedral, a religious school in the Trinity Monastery. Lawyers are preparing a lawsuit currently. But no one knows which path the reserve will choose: whether it is a forceful way, involving the police and the National Guard, or it will it be litigation,” he said.

Father Ihor also added that the diocese had sent an appeal to the reserve with a proposal to sign agreements with the UOC on the free use of shrines, but they refused. According to the secretary of the diocese, this may be because the monasteries will be transferred to the use of the OCU over time.

At the same time, Abbess of the Yelets Convent Maria (Makienko), in an interview with the UOJ, said that more than 40 sisters live in the monastery, most of whom are elderly people:

“More than 40 sisters live in the monastery, two thirds of them are people who are over 80 years old, there are bedridden nuns. They came to the monastery in the 90s and have been living here for 30 years.”

As reported by the UOJ, the commission held a meeting on the "expulsion" of the UOC from the Pochaiv Lavra.

Read also