The head of the freshly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine(OCU) declared on Sunday that prayers at Kyiv’s famed Pechersk Lavra should now be offered in Ukrainian. Up until recently, canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) monks lived in the mediaeval monastery and offered prayers primarily in the Russian language.
On the eve of Orthodox Easter the following Sunday, prayers would be held in the monastery, Metropolitan Epiphany, the head of the OCU, announced to the Ukrainian media. On December 2, 2022, President Vladimir Zelensky outlawed all religious groups “affiliated” with Russia from operating in Ukraine, Kyiv officially certified the Lavra as an OCU monastery.
The first service of the #Orthodox Church of #Ukraine was held in the Assumption Cathedral of the #Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The former president of Ukraine, Petro #Poroshenko, was seen at the service. pic.twitter.com/Zsjro2Muzl
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 7, 2023
Up until recently, the UOC monks kept residing in the monastery. Kyiv cancelled a lease agreement with the UOC in late March, which had let the monks to reside in the Lavra. The monks objected to being asked to leave and complained, appealing the ruling to a Kyiv court. Their case will now be heard later in April.
🎉 Congratulations to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on gaining control of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves)
— Ukraine War Now ✙ (@uarealitynow) April 2, 2023
It’s Ukraine’s holiest site and was founded in 1051
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) that was evicted is controlled by the Russian… pic.twitter.com/FjOzlSOqTw
The ban is seen as a divisive move that could further deepen existing tensions and divisions within Ukrainian society. Ukraine has a sizable population of Russian speakers, particularly in the eastern regions, and the ban may be viewed as discriminatory towards this minority.
Percentage of Ukrainians who speak the Russian language.
The OCU does not want to “evict the monks,” Epiphany told the Ukrainian media. “We want the spirit of the ‘Russian world’ to no longer reign here,” he added while insisting that “the Lavra should be Ukrainian; prayers in Ukrainian and for Ukraine should always be held there.”
Back in November 2022, when the Ukrainian security service (SBU) started a criminal case over chants honouring Russia in the Lavra amid the conflict, tensions between the monastery and the Ukrainian authorities grew. Moscow and Kyiv are still at odds. The SBU has been raiding UOC churches, apparently looking for a weapon cache and proof of treason, the UOC has historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church and was accused of being a security danger by the Ukrainian authorities during the wartime confrontation with Russia.
Metropolitan Pavel, a senior bishop of the UOC and the head of the monks in the Lavra, was taken into custody by Ukrainian law enforcement in late March. He was charged by SBU with promoting religious animosity as well as “defending and denying Russian military aggression.”
Russo-Ukraine war
The Russo-Ukrainian War is an ongoing international conflict between Russia, alongside Russian-backed separatists, and Ukraine, which began in February 2014. Following the violence at Euromaidan and the subsequent coup that ousted the elected government of Yanukovich, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas War. The first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents, cyberwarfare, and heightened political tensions. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine after declaring the Donbas region as Russian territory.
