State Ethnopolitics head says why Kyiv Lavra should remain with UOC

DESS head Olena Bohdan. Photo: open sources

On September 13, 2022, the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine, Olena Bohdan, stated that more than 200 monks of the UOC live in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and only 50 monks in the structure of the OCU for the whole of Kyiv. The official spoke about this at the conference "Religious Peace or ‘War of Civilizations’".

“Someone wondered how many OCU monks are in Kyiv? Less than 50. And how many monks only in one Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which is the UOC? More than 200. There are all in all about 600 people in the residence of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, including seminarians and teachers of the academy,” the head of the State Ethnopolitics cited the data. She noted that the utility bills of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the cost of restoration are “very large sums, they are paid not by the state, but by the religious association of the UOC.”

The official also recalled "the UOC is now the largest religious network in Ukraine, it has more centers than the OCU."

“These are not empty churches. These are temples filled with people. The largest number of Orthodox churches of the UOC is located in Kyiv, and they are not empty. They were not empty in April, and they are not empty now. They are filled with believers,” said Olena Bohdan.

At the same time, she stressed that the Kyiv churches of the OCU are not overcrowded for services: “There is enough room in them for more people to come.”

As the UOJ wrote, a bill on the transfer of the Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochaiv Lavra to the OCU was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.

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