"Acting abbot" of the Lavra from OCU: Not all Lavra brethren are bad

Appointed by the OCU, the "acting abbot" of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and former sacristan of the monastery Avraamiy Lotysh said in an interview with telegraf.com.ua that in the Lavra, in addition to the "bad" brethren, there are also "good" ones, who do not mind moving into the structure of Dumenko in exchange for the opportunity to stay in the monastery.

According to Lotysh, now an allegedly "unhealthy situation has developed" in the monastery, its inhabitants having become its "hostages".

“For the male monastery of the OCU, there are no premises yet for the brethren who will be part of the OCU,” he said. “As soon as there are premises, which depends on the decision by the state, the brethren, who have a Ukrainian consciousness, will be able to join the OCU. Not all of the brethren there are bad. There are good monks who really pray for Ukraine, suffer for Ukraine and our soldiers. Therefore, we are waiting for this process – the provision of premises.”

Commenting on the fact that Dumenko does not have such a number of “monks” that would be enough to populate the Lavra, Avraamiy tried to compare the situation of the OCU in modern Ukraine with the situation in which monasticism was in the USSR: “We begin this process in the same way as they did in their time, when it was formed from nothing. In 1988, when the territory of the Lower Lavra was transferred to the Church, including the Far Caves, there were only 5–7 monks at that time.”

As the UOJ wrote, on July 7, 2023, Hierodeacon Pavel, a resident of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said the brethren would not leave the monastery themselves, but would continue to defend it together with the faithful of the UOC.