Antiochian Church hopes for revoking the decision to evict Lavra’s monks

Metropolitan Isaac of the German and Central European Orthodox Church of Antioch expressed the hope that the Ukrainian authorities would cancel the decision to close the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and evict the monks, RIA Novosti reports.

On March 23, 2023, Metropolitan Isaac delivered an address in which he said that "the Caves Monastery in the Middle Ages was the center of Orthodoxy and is also of great importance for Orthodox Christians today."

Metropolitan Isaac recalled that after the dispersal of the monastery during the time of militant atheism, it was the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that restored this holy monastery anew.

“The clergy and monks make great efforts to keep the monastery in order, work hard for this. Therefore, it is very regrettable that the permission to serve in this holy place was taken away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Vladyka added.

Metropolitan Isaac called on everyone on whom it depends to help so that the clergy and monks could continue to lead their spiritual life in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. He also asked "brothers from the Orthodox Sister Churches to offer their prayers" about it.

“Let the torchlights of prayer continue to shine in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and believers come there without hindrance to participate in the sacraments and venerate the saints of the Caves. We pray and hope that this decision, with God's help, will be cancelled with the consent of the parties involved," the hierarch of the Patriarchate of Antioch emphasized.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Serbian Patriarch made a statement in support of the UOC.