Kiev, July 24, 2025
“Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, the unordained head of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” served in the Far Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra for the first time yesterday.
The OCU created its own “Kiev Caves Lavra” on paper in May 2022 in order to drive out and replace the Orthodox monks who have labored there for decades as the successors of those who have labored there for a millennia. The OCU group later grew into a handful of people, led by “Bishop” Avraamy Latish who apostatized from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in order to become abbot of the new organization.
The Kiev Caves Lavra is owned by the Ukrainian state, inherited by the Soviet Union, and on January 1, 2023, it expelled the Church from the Upper Lavra, with its main cathedrals. The schismatics first served there on January 7 of that year.
The Lower Lavra is the section of the monastery with the monastic cells and the Near and Far Caves, which are home to the relics of more than 100 saints.
And yesterday, July 23, Dumenko served in the Far Caves’ Church of St. Theodosy of the Caves first time. Joined by Latish, other schismatic clergy, and state representatives, he served a “moleben,” the OCU site reports.
Dumenko commented that this service was an “historical event because the Ukrainian Church is returning to where our venerable fathers shone forth and where Ukrainian monastic life began.”
However, the relics of the saints who adorn the Caves testify to the fact that the Ukrainian Church never left the Caves and the monastic life never ceased there. Dumenko’s organization, on the other hand, has no historical connection to the 1,000-year history of the Kiev Caves Lavra.
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