Buildings May Be Returned To Ionivskyi Holy Trinity Monastery

13.11.2002, 13:01

A special commission of Ukraine’s National Committee on Religious Matters, with the participation of national deputies of parliament, is considering the gradual return of some buildings of the Hryshko National Botanical Garden to the Ionivskyi Monastery of the Holy Trinity. These buildings were expropriated by the authorities and given to the Botanical Garden during Soviet times. This news was reported by the Internet newspaper Sedmica on 12 November 2002.

“The issue of the return of religious property and buildings to churches is a very painful one, since new owners are already accustomed to consider these buildings their property,” noted Mykola Novychenko, first deputy head of the National Committee on Religious Matters. However, he also emphasized that the presidential decree “On Urgent Measures for Combating the Negative Consequences of Totalitarian Policies of the Former Soviet Union regarding Religion and Restoration of the Violated Rights of Churches and Religious Organizations,” issued on 21 March 2002, should be observed. The National Committee on Religious Matters promised to solve the issue of the monastic property restitution positively. Source: www.sedmica.orthodoxy.ru