Kiev, December 15, 2015
The Kiev City State Administration is not going to initiate transfer of the Kiev Caves Lavra to the so-called “Kyiv Patriarchate”, reports the Ukrainian Union of Orthodox Journalists with reference to the 44.ua website.
“As the government, we cannot appeal to the Ministry of Culture with such requests as transfer of the Kiev Caves Lavra to the “Kyiv Patriarchate”. In our country the Church and the state are separated. Petitions should be considered by the citizens,” said Diana Popova, head of the Department of Culture at the Kiev City State Administration.
It was earlier reported that the petition concerning transfer of the Kiev Caves Lavra to the schismatics was published on the website of the Kiev City Council and gained 10,000 votes. In connection with this the Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klichko charged the Committee for Local Self-Government Affairs to consider the petition concerning the Lavra.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate called the above-mentioned petition a provocation.
At the end of last week a petition to collect signatures against the transfer of the great Kiev Caves Lavra to the “Kyiv Patriarchate” was published by the faithful on the Kiev Council’s website. Within several days this application was signed by 18,700 people.
