Metropolitan Timotheos of Bostra called attempts to banish the monks of the Kiev Lavra of the Caves a moral crime

DECR Communication Service, 12.06.2023.

The attempts to drive away the monks of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Kiev Lavra of the Caves are a moral crime and manifestation of hate improper for Christians, argues Metropolitan Timotheos of Bostra, Exarch of the Lord’s Most Holy Sepulchre in Cyprus (Orthodox Church of Jerusalem).

‘I don’t know whether the decision of the Ukraine’s minister of culture is legalized, but from the moral point of view it is a crime in case he insists that the monks should leave their cells’, the metropolitan says as cited by TASS.

According to Metropolitan Timotheos, the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) is doing everything possible to destroy any possibility for reconciling with the hierarchs of the canonical Church. ‘The violent capture of churches and persecution against the UOC hierarchy, clergy and faithful and now the banishment of the monks from the Lavra, in which one can see an obvious manifestation of hatred improper for Christians in general, only help to increase the distance between the OCU and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Instead of accepting all the monks with love as their brothers and offer them the opportunity for serving for their cherished monastery, the OCU, unfortunately, proves that it is devoid of the love of Christ and is warring with them’, the metropolitan said.

His Eminence described as unacceptable the blackmail and Ukrainian state’s rough measures against the monks to make them accept the new policy. He recalled that the monks persecuted now in their time made the Kiev Lavra, which was neglected during the atheistic period, ‘a spiritual centre, much prayed-in site and a refuge offering consolation to all the faithful’.

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Metropolitan Timotheos of Bostra called attempts to banish the monks of the Kiev Lavra of the Caves a moral crime

Patriarch

Department Chairman

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Patriarch

Department Chairman

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