Ukraine’s SBU security service on Nov. 30 searched Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a nearly 1,000-year old monastery and one of the main shrines of the Eastern Orthodox believers in the world.
The authorities suspect Metropolitan Pavlo, the head of Lavra, of inciting religious hatred. The Metropolitan’s residence in the village of Voronkino in Kyiv Oblast was also searched on the same day.
Metropolitan Pavlo denied the accusations to the Kyiv Post on Nov.30.
SBU spokesperson Olena Hytlyanska refused to give any further details of the searches or charges against the high-ranking bishop.
The Lavra monastery belongs to the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The church that subordinates to Moscow has been in confrontation with the other Ukrainian church, an independent church of Kyiv Patriarchate.
The tensions between them intensified in the past months as the top ruling body of the world orthodoxy, the Patriarchate in Istanbul, has been preparing to grant independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Russian Orthodox Church that ruled in Ukraine since the 17th century.
In April, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked Istanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to Ukraine’s Orthodox Church –to make it independent from Moscow in the Orthodox hierarchy.
In Ukraine, a country of 42 million people, some 35 million people identify as Eastern Orthodox believers, according to the Pew Research Center.
Until recently, most of them have been parishioners of the Ukrainian church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which had more parishes that their rival church of Kyiv Patriarchate, and has been the only church recognized by the other branches of Eastern Orthodoxy. Now that is about to change.
Both the Ukrainian church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian church have opposed the approaching independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox church from Russia.
For more than 100 years Ukrainian Orthodox clergy have been trying to break free of the Moscow rule. But Russian Orthodox Church refuses to recognize its legitimacy.
After Istanbul Patriarchate in September sent its representative bishops to Ukraine, as a sign of the approaching change of its status in the world Orthodox hierarchy, the Russian Church has decided to break its ties with the Istanbul Patriarchate. So did its branch in Ukraine.
Metropolitan Pavlo was among the first Ukrainian bishops of Moscow Patriarchate Church, who stood against the Istanbul’s decision to recognize Kyiv Orthodox Church and called it an interference into Russia’s canonical “spiritual” territory.
Metropolitan Pavlo is a bishop with a controversial reputation. Ukrainian media reported many times about his lavish lifestyle: the priest lives in a luxurious mansion and drives an S-class Mercedes car he said he received as a gift from the church sponsors.
Metropolitan Pavlo is well-connected to the Ukrainian political and business elites. Top politicians are known to be among his church’s sponsors. When Mykola Azarov became the prime minister under then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010, he said he called up Metropolitan Pavlo to bless his office in the Cabinet of Ministers headquarters. Both Azarov and Yanukovych now live in Russia, ousted by the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014.
Metropolitan Pavlo said he was confused by the authorities’ accusations as they showed up at his mansion on Nov. 30.
“They accuse me of violating the rights of believers, of hate mongering. I’ve never hated anyone and never agitated for hate,” the church leader told the Kyiv Post on Nov.30.
In fact, the priest has a reputation for harsh statements. Often they were directed at journalists. Back in 2012, he assaulted a journalist who asked him about his lifestyle, tearing the mobile phone she used for recording from her hands.
During a briefing on Nov. 29, Metropolitan Pavlo said that the authorities wanted to punish him for allegedly besmirching his opponents: Ukrainian Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, and Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, based in Istanbul.
“That is not true. I really respect Patriarch Bartholomew,” Metropolitan Pavlo said. “But I don’t accept the fact that now they want to create a nonexistent church,” he added, referring to the unified Ukrainian Orthodox church that will be created after the Istanbul Patriarchate finalizes Ukrainian church’s independence from Russia.
The SBU search took place a day after the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine on Nov. 29 ordered a review of all precious relics the state had passed to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery back in 1988, the first such review in 30 years. Metropolitan Pavlo said ministry officials had been satisfied with the result of the review.
The same day, the Holy Synod of Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the highest Orthodox ruling body, approved the text of the decree that grants autocephaly or independence to Ukraine’s church.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church now has to undergo the process of unification to become officially independent – a move firmly opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Moscow Patriarchate bishops have refused to take part in unification.
President Petro Poroshenko has made the promise of an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine one of the main points of his campaigning ahead of the presidential election, which is set for March 2019.
