Kiev, September 15, 2023
Photo: pravoslavie.ru
The North Economic Court of Appeal in Kiev confirmed yesterday the earlier decision to demolish the much-contested Tithes Church.
The present Tithes Church was built by Kiev residents in 2006 with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine on the site of the Church of the Tithes—the first cathedral of Kievan Rus’, which was blown up in 1936.
The new church was vandalized and set on fire on January 25, 2018. On February 3, about 200 radicals staged a protest near the monastery, calling for its dismantling. More than 3,000 came out to defend the monastery on the same day. The former abbot of the Tithes Monastery, His Grace Bishop Gideon of Makarov, was temporarily deprived of his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019-2020 after he spoke out about the persecution of the Church.
In February of this year, the Economic Court of Kiev ruled that the church encroaches upon the territory of the National History Museum, within the buffer zone of UNESCO monuments, and therefore must be demolished.
The Court of Appeal heard the Church’s petition but ultimately rejecting it.
Ironically, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy announced the decision to destroy the church, which was built by the people of Kiev to restore their culture heritage, calling the demolishion a “victory in the struggle for [Ukrainian] cultural heritage!”
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
