Filaret: After Maidan volunteer battalions suggest seizing Lavra for UOC-KP

Representatives of right radical organizations at the walls of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: seraphim.com.ua

The head of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko said in an interview with the “Apostrophe” edition that after Euromaidan he was approached by representatives of volunteer battalions with a proposal to seize the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. 

Answering a question about petitions, demanding to give the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the OCU, Filaret said that he is against the forcible seizure of the monastery.

Moreover, according to him, after Maidan "volunteer battalions approached him to seize the Lavra, evict everyone from there and hand it over to the Kyiv Patriarchate".

"I said then that they mustn’t do that and drag people by force into this or that church. Even Christ does not drag anyone into the Kingdom of God by force. The doors are open; if you want, go in; if you don’t want – stay outside the Kingdom of God. So is with the Church: if you want to be in the Kyiv Patriarchate, we will gladly accept you; but if you do not want to, we do not need you like that," said the head of the UOC CP.

Earlier the UOJ wrote that according to Filaret, the Galicians did not want to go to war in the Donbass, but after his call – they did.

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