MinCulture allows OCU to "restore" prayer services in Lavra's Near Caves

Photo: Avraamiy Lotysh and Lavra Reserve Director Maksym Ostapenko. Source: Facebook page of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve

On June 4, 2026, supporters of the OCU held their first service in a long time in the Near Caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, led by “acting abbot” Avraamiy Lotysh. The National Reserve stated that the opportunity to conduct prayers became possible thanks to the “cooperation” of the Ministry of Culture, the museum administration, and the religious structure headed by Epifaniy Dumenko.

The OCU has now been authorized to hold “regular prayer services” only once a week – on Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. At the same time, access to the caves for prayer is allowed only by prior registration and exclusively in the company of representatives of Dumenko’s structure. The pilgrim groups themselves are also organized by the OCU.

Archbishop Iona (Cherepanov), abbot of the Holy Trinity St. Jonah Monastery, recalled that before the canonical Church was expelled from the Lavra, prayer services and Divine Liturgies in the caves were celebrated daily without the need for the “self-sacrificing efforts” of the Ministry of Culture and the reserve administration. He described the current attempt to present these infrequent and tightly regulated services as a “restoration” of prayer as “grotesque and a circus.”

As the UOJ reported, Ostapenko told whether they would paint over the fresco of Seraphim of Sarov in the Lavra.

Read also