Kiev, March 15, 2023
Photo: spzh.news
The Union of Orthodox Journalists published an interview with His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod, the abbot of the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra, yesterday, discussing the state’s intention to completely evict the Church from the monastery.
The interview covers the history, present circumstances, and future of the Lavra, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence, and the strength of faith of the Ukrainian people.
A commission appointed to examine the territory of the state-owned Lavra claims it found various violations on the territory of the monastery. However, Met. Pavel rejects these accusations, emphasizing that when the Lavra was restored after the decades of godless Soviet rule, the necessary permission from the Museum administration and the Ministry of Culture was received.
Six presidents have already come and gone since Met. Pavel has been at the monastery. “Do we have to adapt to every government?” he asks. “We are children of Christ, we are the Church of Christ. We are for our country, I am for my country. I am against war, but I won’t allow my heart, faith and true God to be trampled upon.”
And considering the motivation for the persecution against the monastery, the abbot says:
I don’t know how true this is, but I was told that the current actions against the Lavra are the desire of the authorities to make a gift for Bartholomew, to give Turkey our sacred place. That’s why everyone is shouting now that the Lavra is supposedly Muscovite. But Moscow has nothing to do with it. I was watching a dialogue between Tkachenko and a TSN journalist, where we were called the “Moscow Patriarchate.” But I want to ask—where did they find the words “Moscow Patriarchate” in the documents? The Minister and the journalist should be judged for this lie alone, be brought to justice. After all, people look and think: “Yes, indeed, it’s the Moscow Patriarchate,” Because the Minister of Culture said so.
Recall that the state declared that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still part of the Moscow Patriarchate after examining documents of the Russian Orthodox Church rather than those of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian Church separated itself from the Russian Church back in May, completely removing all mention of the Russian Church from its governing documents.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a Minister of Culture, but a Minister of Lack-of-Culture… What is happening now has nothing to do with culture,” Met. Pavel said.
“These are the grandchildren of the ‘great leaders’: Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Khruschev. We will stand to the last, but if we are thrown out, let the whole world watch. We will talk every day about what is happening around the monastery,” he continued. He also declared in a video address on Monday that the monks have no intention of leaving their home in accordance with the state’s illegal order.
Moreover, the Metropolitan believes the Ukrainian faithful will protect the Lavra themselves. “I don’t summon them, but they come by themselves.”
In addition to threats of eviction, the authorities also try to pressure the Church to join the with the graceless schismatics of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
“Some representatives of the authorities come to me and say: ‘Unite with Epiphany,’” Met. Pavel recounts. “What can I say? Who would we be uniting with? Let Dumenko first get a valid ordination… After all, I, for example, don’t wear the Patriarchal kukol, because that would just be a traveling circus.”
“Previously, we were called to unite with Philaret,” Met. Pavel says, referring to “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko, formerly the leader of the Ukrainian schismatic movement, who was forced out upon the creation of the OCU. “Now everyone has forgotten about him. The time will come, and it will be the same with Epiphany.”
The Union of Orthodox Journalists then ask the hierarch: “Vladimir Zelensky said that Ukraine won’t allow Russia, I quote, ‘to destroy Ukrainian Lavras and steal any valuables from them.’ Obviously, we’re talking about the Kiev Caves Lavra. Is this some kind of message for the UOC?”
His Eminence responds: “What the President said, on the one hand, is correct. But the problem is that we have nothing to do with Russia; no one commands us. I have nothing to do with the Moscow Patriarchate. Yes, I communicate, and I will communicate with friends, bishops, priests—we are one. Just as I communicate with Patriarch Theophilus [of Jerusalem—OC], as we communicate with other Local Churches…”
“But we have the primate of our Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.”
Speaking of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, Met. Pavel notes that he said some things “for his people,” while the UOC speaks “in defense of our people.”
“And we don’t commemorate him during the Divine services, because we don’t agree with what was said in some moments by the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he explains. “For the Patriarch of All Rus’, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus should be equally important. If he is the Patriarch for everyone, then he should have found other words, given parting words for Ukrainian soldiers, for the Ukrainian people.”
The Metropolitan’s words echo those of the Russian missionary priest Fr. Oleg Stenyaev that the Patriarch should be above national and state interests.
And turning to the feast of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves that was celebrated on Sunday, Met. Pavel notes how thousands of canonical Ukrainian Orthodox faithful filled the Lavra, braving the snowy elements. Liturgies were celebrated in 8 different churches, and nearly 2,000 people received Holy Communion.
Meanwhile, the schismatics served in the churches of the Upper Lavra, and had to bus in people from afar to have a congregation, the Metropolitan added.
“The people know their shepherd and hear his voice and follow him.”
Asked what will happen to the Lavra, the hierarch concluded: “The Lavra is our sacred place, our home, and we won’t leave it voluntarily.”
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