Kiev, March 10, 2020
After a year of forced stay abroad after his passport and citizenship were arbitrarily revoked by the previous Poroshenko administration, His Grace Bishop Gideon of Makarov, who is also abbot of the historic Tithes Monastery in Kiev, has returned home to Ukraine, His Grace Bishop Viktor of Baryshevka reported on his Telegram Channel on Sunday.
And His Grace returned just in time to celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy at the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and several other of his brother hierarchs in the Ukrainian Church, reports the Church’s Information-Education Department.
Bp. Gideon was unexpectedly detained in the Kiev Boryspil in Kiev in February last year upon returning from America, where he had spoken with Congressmen about the persecution the canonical Ukrainian Church was facing under Poroshenko’s rule. His Grace was deported, his passport was confiscated, and his citizenship was canceled.
He also holds American citizenship and ended up spending several months in California. He later filed a lawsuit against the Migration Service in the Volyn Oblast, demanding that the decision to cancel his citizenship be overturned and declared illegal.
The District Administrative Court of Kiev began proceedings in the case on April 23, and on September 19, the court ruled in Bp. Gideon’s favor, deciding not only to return his citizenship, but also to reimburse him for his court fees.
Despite the Administrative Court’s September decision, the matter continued in the Appeals Court, which ordered the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Volyn Province to return Bp. Gideon’s citizenship on January 22.
