DESS: State to make an agreement with another monastic community in Lavra

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: my.ua

The head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Viktor Yelensky, believes that the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra may be leased to another Church, which will not be affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. Yelensky said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to him, a government commission was set up on 1 December 2022 in accordance with a decision of the National Security and Defence Council, which found violations in the way the UOC used state property.

Therefore, an interdepartmental group set up by the government to prepare proposals on the activities of religious organizations recommended that the Ministry of Culture terminate the agreement on the monastery's use of the buildings of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.

"Subsequently, the state may conclude a use agreement with another monastic community, which will treat the historical and cultural space of its country more conscientiously and will not be linked to the Moscow Patriarchate," Yelensky concluded.

As reported, Viktor Yelenskiy previously spoke about the preliminary results of the inspection of the Upper Lavra and also noted that the Lower Lavra was also undergoing an audit.

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