PCU vs UPC MP: how the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra will be divided anew

PCU vs UPC MP: how the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra will be divided anew

7 January on Christmas according to the Julian calendar the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), Metropolitan Epiphanius, conducted a service at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. It took place in the monastery’s main church — the Dormition Cathedral. Until recently, only representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP) had the right to serve there.

About why the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was allowed to hold the festive liturgy 7 January in the Lavra and whether the UPC MP will manage to hold its ground within its walls, Focus writes.

Without a lease right: at society’s demand

The churches and some other buildings of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which is conditionally divided by a wall into the lower and upper parts, are a national reserve — that is, they belong to the state.

The lower Lavra (where the near and far caves are located) was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988 for the millennium of the Baptism of Rus — there simply were no other churches in the Soviet Union at that time (the documents were then signed by Metropolitan Filaret (Denysenko), Metropolitan of Kyiv and Exarch of Ukraine, who four years later initiated the full separation of the Ukrainian church from the ROC). True, not the entire territory of the lower Lavra was transferred, only partially — over the years control over the territories expanded. As a result, in 2013 (that is, during the government of Mykola Azarov, before the Revolution of Dignity) the last open-ended lease agreement was signed. According to it, the reserve has the right only to inspect the condition of monuments of national and local architectural significance.

On the territory of the upper Lavra, clerics were until recently allowed to hold services in the Dormition Cathedral restored during independence and in the Refectory Church, built at the end of the 19th century. Other buildings of the complex are administrative and museum facilities. The lease term for the churches of the upper Lavra expired at the end of 2022, and from 1 January 2023 the state decided not to renew it. 5 January 2023 it became known that a commission of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine completed the acceptance-transfer of the Dormition Cathedral and the Refectory Church from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church MP on the territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra reserve — to the state. And although the abbot of the Lavra — Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid), who was to sign the act, did not attend the commission’s final meeting, the Ministry of Culture believes the transfer was legally completed.

The official reason for the transfer is that one of Ukraine’s most important religious sites and an architectural monument should be under state control. This was said by the Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Unofficially — the desire to reduce the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROC in Ukraine and the greatly increased public demand since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression to restrict the activities of the UPC MP. After 24 February some priests and regional hierarchs of that church publicly approved the invasion and even aided the occupation. For example, a well-known case when the rector of a church in Lysychansk in Luhansk region passed information to the Russian side about the locations of Ukrainian troops in the city and around Sievierodonetsk, for which he was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment.

It was precisely because of potential Russian influence on the church that the SBU conducted searches in dozens of UPC MP churches in the autumn-winter of 2022. Including on the territory of the Kyiv Lavra. The reason for the visit was a parishioners’ complaint that during a service a song was sung with the words: "A bell floats, floats over Russia, Mother Rus is awakening." As a result of such checks, the SBU published a list of clerics who were included in the NSDC sanctions list. Among them were, in particular, a UPC (MP) cleric, former MP Vadym Novynskyi and the abbot of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Pavlo (Petro Lebid).

Another matter is the lower Lavra. If in the upper part the church merely used the temples, in the lower part it settled in — all the buildings are still used by the UPC MP. And not only the churches and the famous Lavra caves: there is a seminary, the theological academy, synodal departments, and the official residence of the head of the UPC MP, Metropolitan Onufriy. Additionally, there are cells, a refectory and a hotel. Several construction projects began at times, during which national heritage sites were partially or completely destroyed. For example, the city police have been investigating since 2017 the construction and reconstruction without state knowledge and UNESCO approval (which since 1990 is on the World Heritage List) of several buildings. In particular, gates to the territory of the near caves and a hospital building. And recently it became known that on the walls of some churches Abbot Pavlo (Lebid) depicted an icon with his own image. This happened not only on the upper choir of the modern Dormition Cathedral in the upper Lavra, but also in the lower Lavra — in the Academic Church in 1696.

According to Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko, despite the open-ended lease, the state can review the agreement on the UPC MP’s use of the monastic complex in the lower Lavra. And this issue will be resolved in the near future — after an audit of property and other inspections.

Moscow’s reaction: "policy of church marauding"

The UPC MP reacted sharply to the decision not to renew the lease of the upper Lavra churches and to the inspections in the lower Lavra, calling it a "policy of church marauding."

"Only one thing remains — to start killing priests, bishops and believers, and I see that it is coming," — with these words 26 December the abbot of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid), addressed the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Later he said that 7 January a "forcible seizure of the Dormition Cathedral" could occur, because, according to his information from the museum administration, Metropolitan Epiphanius does not have permission for the announced service. The Ministry of Culture refuted this claim — the contract was concluded.

The Holy Dormition Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is considered the informal capital of East Slavic Orthodoxy. The Russian Orthodox Church (and the Russian authorities) have always declared that it is their spiritual center. Even though the monastery was founded during the reign of Prince Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century, that is, before the founding of Moscow and the appearance of a church there. In recent years the Lavra was considered the center of the Russian world in the center of Kyiv — services were held in Church Slavonic, Russian "Cossack" guards protected the monastery, and the abbot Pavlo (Lebid) conspicuously gave interviews to journalists in Russian. Already after the searches in the Lavra a Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called the events a "war of Ukraine against the Russian Orthodox Church."

Although the UPC MP itself officially tries to deny its affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church, citing the May decision of its synod that testifies to the church’s full independence. As religious studies scholar, Doctor of Philosophy Lyudmyla Pylypovych says, "they cleaned up their statute, removing Russia from it, but they did not introduce Ukraine into it."

Under the threat of a ban

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture says the upper Lavra churches are not being transferred for use to the PCU, despite the fact that in December 2022 the Orthodox Church of Ukraine decided to establish a men’s monastery "Holy Dormition Kyiv Pechersk Lavra." It is located across the road from the Lavra — in the Sviato-Feodosiiivskyi Monastery. At the Lavra, as in the Saint Sophia Cathedral, church services will be possible.

As for the UPC MP, its fate in Ukraine is still unknown. In 2022 deputies several times submitted bills to parliament on a possible ban of the UPC MP or, more precisely, of structures that might be connected to the Russian Orthodox Church. But none of them was considered.

Viktor Yelensky, current head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, says it is impossible to ban the existence of a church in Ukraine.

There are several reasons for this.

First — legal. The church is not a legal entity; each individual community, monastery, or administrative center is.

Second — the state declares that the church is separated from it, so all prohibitive laws have little meaning (changes would have to be made to the Constitution, which is impossible during martial law).

Yelensky notes that to regulate the work of a church ideologically linked to Moscow, there is no need to invent new laws but to enforce existing ones. For example, the law that obliges religious organizations whose center is in an aggressor country to be named according to their center’s name. It is currently not being enforced — the UPC MP refuses to change its name and indicate its affiliation with the ROC. Partly the reason is a decision of the now-dissolved Kyiv District Administrative Court, which allowed not renaming the church. But 27 December the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized as compliant with the Basic Law the provision according to which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church must change its name.

So far the UPC MP has announced its intention to challenge in court the decision not to renew the lease of the "upper Lavra" churches.