Holy Sepulcher Exarch in Cyprus: Lavra and UOC parishes have become Golgotha

Brethren of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: lavra.ua

Metropolitan Timotheos, Exarch of the Holy Sepulcher in Cyprus (Patriarchate of Jerusalem), sent congratulations on Easter to the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, in which he expressed support for the Ukrainian bishop, the Lavra’s residents and the entire UOC in view of the persecution they are experiencing.

“This year, Holy Week has come earlier in the long-suffering Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the message says. “With great sorrow, we learn that every village and every parish of Ukraine, which remains unshakable in traditional piety and opposes the imposed newly created ecclesiastical orders, has been turned into Golgotha. Martyr's crosses were erected for our brother hierarchs, clergy and believers who remained faithful to their Mother Church, in the bosom of which they were baptized and brought up. It hurts us that our brother bishops were subjected to humiliating checks and deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, that priests and believers are beaten and abused, and also forcibly expelled from holy churches, where they prayed for decades, while their children defend their homeland and die on the battlefields."

The exarch stressed that "the sacred space of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra turned into a new Golgotha after the (lease – Ed.) agreement with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was terminated on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the competent authorities, reminiscent of the court of the Sanhedrin, and the UOC is being crucified."

The Metropolitan notes that the authorities decided to expel the clergy and seminarians from the Lavra in order to transfer the monastery to the control of the newly formed OCU, and numerous Lavra monks are being forced to recognize the new leadership.

According to the exarch, the house arrest of Metropolitan Pavel, who “for many years made every effort to restore the Lavra from the ashes”, causes "a disturbing impression and grief." The hierarch noted that the treatment of the Lavra’s abbot as a criminal "causes indignation and refers to the gospel quote: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’ (Matt. 26:31)."

“In connection with the above-mentioned events and with the upcoming Holy and Great Week of the Passion of the Lord, I express to Your Eminence my great compassion and sincere support. I consider it appropriate to remind you of the stichera of the holy forty martyrs: ‘severe is the winter’ through which you are passing, ‘but sweet is Paradise’ prepared by God for His beloved. May the Lord grant you patience, spirituial fortitude, bodily strength and steadfastness in faith before suffering, about which our Lord warned: ‘If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also’ (John 15:20). ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world' (John 16:33). From the bottom of my heart, I wish Your Eminence to worthily ascend Golgotha in the hope of the Resurrection,” wrote Metropolitan Timothy.

As reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, informed the Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubynets about the violation of the monastery’s brethren's right to freedom of conscience and their discrimination.

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