“The Lord will not leave”: the speaker of the Russian Orthodox Church Kipshidze predicted the fate of the monks of the Orthodox Church

Hundreds of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church came to the temple of the Lower Lavra, where the active monastery and caves with the relics of saints are located, to offer prayers for the protection of the shrine.

The Ukrainian authorities cynically gave the monks two weeks to move out of the monastery, which, according to Metropolitan Pavel, vicegerent of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, is physically impossible to do. The brethren improved the monastery for 35 years. And the inhabitants simply do not have a place where they could take all their property. And the monks do not intend to leave anything to the schismatics.

The brethren continue to fight, considering the termination of the contract for the indefinite lease of the premises of the monastery with the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Reserve unilaterally illegal. A lawsuit was filed with the Kyiv Economic Court. But, as it became known, already three judges have withdrawn themselves.

There will be no voluntary exodus of monks from the Lavra. But the situation is still calm. Except for the swear words that pour on the believers from the schismatics of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

However, already on March 30 in the morning, as the parishioners said, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Culture, a commission for the acceptance and transfer of property will begin to work on the territory of the Lavra.

So, the confrontation is still ahead.

With the forcible eviction of the monks, the brethren are ready to receive Kyiv monasteries, as well as monasteries on the territory of Russia.

“There are already cases when priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church found shelter in Russia,” says Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate. And they continued their priestly ministry in various parishes. But this, in my opinion, should not be the only way out.

Priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should not become strangers on the territory of their own state. They should not be ousted from their parishes, monasteries and turn into forced emigrants.

Vakhtang Kipshidze draws attention to the lack of reaction to what is happening on the part of international human rights organizations.

“As a rule, they promptly and very harshly react to violations in the field of religious freedom, but here, as if water was taken into the mouth. They are silent, they do not react in any way to flagrant lawlessness and violations of religious freedom.

– Can we expect monks to be forcibly taken out of the monastery?

“We must soberly assess the intentions of the Ukrainian authorities. Unfortunately, these intentions are either to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church or force it to merge into the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). And they do everything for this: they intimidate, deprive of shrines, expel them from churches and monasteries, and sometimes they kidnap and kill priests. Whatever happens today and in the coming days, I am afraid that the trend of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will continue.

– If the monks are evicted from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who will settle in the monastery?

– Not everyone knows this, but in the schismatic community of the OCU there simply do not exist such a number of monastics to occupy illegally seized cells and monastic buildings belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is difficult for me to imagine what they are going to do on the territory of this shrine, but it is obvious that this will be some kind of act of discrediting this holy place.

But even in these circumstances, we must not lose hope. We believe that the Lord will not leave his church. We remember that for many decades the Lavra was in captivity of the godless authorities, monastic life was terminated there. The shrines were closed to the public. But those times have passed. And we believe that these times will pass.

— What will happen to the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary?

— I think that the schismatics and the nationalist-minded mentors behind them would like to destroy the system of spiritual education in Ukraine. But we know that the church in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldavia, and many other states inhabited by the peoples of historical Rus’ has a single common history. This historical fact haunts those “architects” who seek to divide the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. They would like to reformat the system of spiritual education in such a way that it sows discord between Orthodox believers in Ukraine and Russia. But they won’t be able to.

The head of the department for relations with society and the media of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk diocese, Hieromonk Macarius (Markish), in turn, says that different generations in his environment react differently to the events around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

“Those who are younger, they get terribly upset, nervous, show anger and some kind of despair,” Father Macarius shares with us. “Those who are older react more calmly. I also relate to them.

We all saw this in the 20th century from the side of the godless authorities, who evicted monks and shot believers. Because the church denounced the godless power and its nature. The communist authorities simply could not get along calmly with Orthodoxy. Christianity is faith in God, and God is the source of goodness. People who destroy their country, violate all existing moral laws, cannot get along with Christianity. We see the same thing now in Ukraine. We see the nature of this Kyiv regime. Therefore, the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will continue.

Father Macarius says that the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra have the opportunity to move to Russia.

— In our regional center Ivanovo, I see quite a lot of Ukrainians who, despite the fact that they have become migrants, live and rejoice, they are calm and confident. We all understand that we are one and the same nation that is being split from outside. They pit us against each other. I can give advice to the brethren—come to Great Russia. We love you, we welcome you all.