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Abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra released from custody

DECR Communication Service, 07.08.2023.
On the 7th of August, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, Abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, was granted bail. The archpastor, after he was released fr om the detention centre, addressed the brethren and all the faithful, reports the Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The video of the hierarch's address was published on his Telegram channel by Metropolitan Pavel's lawyer Archpriest Nikita Chekman. The lawyer recalled that on the14th of July, the Solomensky District Court of Kiev changed the measure of restraint for Metropolitan Pavel from round-the-clock house arrest to detention in custody; bail was set at 33,300,000 hryvnias, an amount that seemed unaffordable. The website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published details wh ere everyone could transfer their contribution in order to raise the amount needed for the bail and speed up Metropolitan Pavel’s release from the detention centre. "Today's event is a common merit of the parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who proved that nothing is impossible. About a thousand people made bail," Archpriest Nikita Chekman commented.
In a published address, Metropolitan Pavel thanked His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, the brethren, his defenders, relatives and all believers for their support. "I thank you for your prayer, for your patience, for your love. I thank those people who have bailed me out. May the Lord send you good health and eternal salvation," Vladyka said. – “The most important thing, dear brothers and sisters, is to keep the faith, to remain faithful to God, to the Church and to our earthly Motherland, which has brought us up, which today gives us the opportunity to pray and to survive these hard times that have come to our land”.
As previously reported, on 15 July, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ addressed the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches, a number of religious figures and representatives of international organisations with messages in which he reported about the persecution of Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, the Abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
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