The Holy Synod of the UOC-MP has issued an appeal to its faithful to "protect the most valuable shrine, the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, by all legal means available to us."
This was stated in the statement released by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC-MP on March 23
UOC-MP clergy avow their love for Ukraine and say their faithful are volunteering and fighting at the front.
"What do our officials do in return? They despise and desecrate shrines, trying to intimidate us, the Orthodox, comprehensively, persuade us to make some kind of "compromise" and, as a result, simply destroy us," the UOC-MP notes.
We urge you to show your faith and strengthen your prayers to protect our most precious shrine, the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, by all legal means," said the authors of the appeal. "Many people are appealing to the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to bless the spiritual work of protecting our legal right to continue praying in the Lavra and taking care of it
On March 20, the members of the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP, led by Metropolitan Onufriy, arrived at the Office of the President of Ukraine to meet with the state leadership and present their position. They waited outside for a while, and then an office worker informed them that communication with the president could not take place without prior agreement. However, the employees of the relevant departments of the presidential office agreed to receive the UOC-MP delegation, register their appeal, and submit it for further consideration.
The representatives of the UOC-MP declined to submit their appeal. On March 10, the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" notified the UOC-MP monastery that the agreement made on July 19, 2013, which allowed for the free use of state-owned religious buildings and other property, would be terminated from March 29, 2023. Metropolitan Pavlo Lebid clarified that the monks would not leave the monastery because they had been organizing and managing the monastery's affairs for 35 years and had nowhere else to keep their property.