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Belarusian Orthodox Church offers to host monks from Ukraine's Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Kiev-Pechersk Lavra/TASS

MINSK, 5 July (BelTA) - In the event of their forcible eviction from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the monks could find a place for further monastic life in the monasteries of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, the Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) said in a statement in connection with the ongoing actions by the Ukrainian authorities against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The statement was posted on the BOC official website on 4 July, BelTA has learned.

It is noted that the Synod of the BOC, expressing support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in this difficult time, is against the expulsion of the brethren of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra from the monastery where monks have been praying for the good of the Ukrainian people for decades. Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture issued another executive order ruling that the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra leave the premises of the monastery. The highly probable expulsion of the monks from the Lavra is a violation of the law, a demonstrative act of disregard for the universal values and the rights of believers, the BOC believes.

The Belarusian Orthodox Church also calls on the Ukrainian authorities to prevent the removal of church relics and shrines that have been kept within the walls of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for centuries and are a spiritual support for all Slavic peoples. There is a great danger that the shrines may be damaged or completely lost as a result of transportation. The BOC fears that the icons and relics of the holy ascetics may end up in museum collections or even in private collections of people who are often far from faith and piety, thereby repeating the tragic fate of the Belarusian shrine - the Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk.

The statement says that for several months the head of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed) has been under arrest on trumped-up charges. The clergy of the Lavra are deprived of the opportunity to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and other divine services, and its monks and numerous believers are deprived of the opportunity to pray freely in the cathedral churches of the monastery. Illegal actions are regularly committed against the clergy and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is aggravating the current situation.

At the end of June 2023, the media reported that the Kiev city authorities, under the plausible pretext of "saving" cultural property from Russian missile strikes, were planning to remove the especially revered shrines of the Orthodox Church from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra: holy relics and ancient icons and transfer them "for preservation" to museums in Italy, France, Germany and the Vatican.

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