Dumenko asks Prime Minister to hand over one of Lavra's churches to OCU
The head of the OCU demanded to "immediately solve the issue" of the transfer of the temple of the Upper Lavra to the use of its structure.
Epifaniy Dumenko appealed to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal with a request to transfer the temple of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the OCU. The full text of the letter is published by pomisna.info.
The head of the OCU claims that the monks of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra "wish to develop not the ‘Russian world’ but to restore the old Ukrainian traditions of the Lavra life in the family of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine".
Addressing Shmyhal, Epifaniy called himself "the head of the Lavra" and asked to urgently resolve the issue of handing over one of the temples of the upper part of the Kyiv-Pechersk lavra for "services" by OCU representatives.
Dumenko's supporters expect to receive the Church of the Annunciation in the former Metropolitan Chambers or the Church of All Saints above the Economic Gates.
Also, Epifaniy requests for the use of the premises on the territory of the Upper Lavra by the OCU "for monastic life and activities".
According to the information from the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, as of January 1, 2021, the OCU has 79 monasteries with 233 monks, which is 2.9 people per monastery. This suggests that there is currently no need for the OCU to form new monasteries as there is not a large number of those willing to live the monastic life among Dumenko's followers, and most of the structure's monasteries exist only on paper.
As earlier reported, the OCU set up a structure called the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
