Acting CEO of the Reserve offers a job to some of Lavra monks

Maksym Ostapenko. Photo: zp.vgorode.ua

Maksym Ostapenko, the acting CEO of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra", hopes to employ some of the monastery's monastics in the reserve's staff to take care of the saints’ relics and caves. The official from the Ministry of Culture shared this information in an interview with ukrinform.ua.

According to him, positions for the monks are already provided for in the staff schedule, which is yet to be approved by the Ministry.

"Until the state makes a decision on the further mechanism of interaction between the government and the monastery, so as not to break the tradition, it is possible to involve some of the monks in taking care of the caves and relics, but within the structure of the Reserve," said Ostapenko. "We are considering this, and the new staff list that we have submitted to the Ministry of Culture envisages precisely the involvement of monks in this work, so to speak. It will be an official status. It will grant the monks the right to conduct necessary procedures with the relics but under the supervision of the government."

As previously reported, Maksym Ostapenko acknowledged that there are no specialists at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Reserve who have the necessary qualifications to work with the caves after the transfer of the monastery to the state.

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