Dumenko to Lavra's brethren: Stop serving the Moscow yoke, come to me

Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: screenshot of the OCU YouTube channel

The head of the OCU, Serhiy (Epifaniy) Dumenko, called on the brethren of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to stop serving the Moscow yoke and join his structure. Dumenko's appeal is posted on the OCU website.

Dumenko stated that "for a long time, both our Church, and the Ukrainian state, and society have tried to induce the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine to finally stop subordination to the Russian center." In response, according to Dumenko, “everyone saw an attempt to mislead the state and society by declaring separation from the Moscow Patriarchate while actually maintaining subordination to it.”

"As a sacred archimandrite of the Lavra”, Serhiy Dumenko expressed the conviction that “the society as a whole and the brethren in particular are well aware of numerous examples of how <...> the Lavra consistently and consciously turned into a center for propaganda of the Russian world ideology.” Therefore, Dumenko “once again” called on the Lavra's brethren to “contribute to the process of liberation from the Moscow yoke.”

In his opinion, the OCU and the brethren of the Lavra “belong to the one Church of Christ. The Moscow spiritual authority in Ukraine is non-canonical, and everyone sees how the Kremlin uses it against the Ukrainian people. The Lavra should not be an instrument of struggle against Ukraine, but, on the contrary, a place of prayer, devout monastic life in the spirit of the fathers and ascetics of the past.”

Dumenko assured the brethren that the UOC would not be able to reclaim the Lavra again, and now the OCU would be here, which “appealed to the Government with a request to provide premises for monastic life and worship in the Lavra.”

Serhiy Dumenko assured the monks that the UOC “has no canonical or moral prospect in Ukraine” and expressed his conviction that “soon the final ban on Moscow from influencing Ukrainian church life will be enunciated by state law.”

He guaranteed the brethren that those who "follow the requirements of the canons and Tomos, reject the lawless power of Moscow, will continue their service in the Lavra." Dumenko even promised managerial positions to run the current affairs of the monastery to those “who are not marred with devotion to the ‘Russian world’.”

“Our goal is to preserve and renew the monastery of our fathers Anthony and Theodosius, to cleanse it from the delusion of the ‘Russian world’. We are ready to cooperate with everyone who shares this desire,” Epifaniy Dumenko concluded his speech.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the brethren of the Lavra called Dumenko a liar and a robber.

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