Pantheon in Lavra will provoke interfaith conflicts, KDAiS rector says

Archbishop Sylvester. Photo: KDAiS press service

KDAiS Rector Archbishop Sylvester (Stoichev) has warned of the risk of interfaith clashes over the authorities’ plans to create a National Pantheon on the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

While supporting the idea of honoring heroes as such, Archbishop Sylvester called the choice of location highly controversial and said it raises justified concerns among scholars and the public.

In the rector’s view, the Lavra is a special sacred place with a “field of meanings” formed over centuries, which would be blurred by the introduction of a new ideological concept. The status of the Reserve requires the state to protect this unique space, not to introduce fundamentally new and alien elements into it.

Moreover, the appearance of a pantheon would inevitably restrict free access to the shrine. “Has such an important aspect been taken into account as the mandatory visits to the Pantheon by foreign official delegations, which in turn will inevitably complicate protocol procedures and again limit ordinary citizens’ free access to the Lavra?” the hierarch asked.

The main risk of the project lies in the different confessions of those planned for burial in the memorial complex. “It would be better to find a neutral space for their joint burial – one not so closely connected with a specific religious community,” Archbishop Sylvester stressed.

The hierarch added that many historical figures would hardly have wished during their lifetime to be buried in an Orthodox monastery, while creating the pantheon specifically in the Lavra “lays the groundwork for future contradictions, including interfaith ones, for many years to come.”

As the UOJ reported, the OCU has welcomed the construction of a pantheon in the Lavra.

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