Metropolitan Сlement: OCU needs the Lavra only as a trophy

Any attempts to take away the Kyiv-Pecherskaya Lavra from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are considered only as a crime, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky said in an interview with the Klymenko Tyme channel.

"The Lavra has belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church since the times when no one heard about the OCU or any other organizations and did not know that they would arise," the hierarch noted.

Vladyka also noted that the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a monastery where a lot of monastics work. They pray continuously for the whole world, as do the inhabitants of more than 300 monasteries of the UOC, located all over Ukraine.

"If we talk about the OCU, they don't physically have as many monks living in at least the monasteries they already have. According to statistics, there are 2 monks for each of their monasteries, therefore, if 5 or 10 monks live in one of them, some monasteries remain without monastics at all. The OCU needs the Lavra only as a trophy to mock the religious feelings of the UOC believers. I do not think that it is a sensible policy to arrange such experiments," Metropolitan Clement said.

As reported, Epifaniy Dumenko met with the German ambassador to Ukraine to discuss the fate of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

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