Ternopil regional council has appealed to the President and the Cabinet of Ministers with the requirement to return the status of state reserve to Pochayiv Lavra. This decision was supported by all 54 deputies who were present during the session of regional council on May 12.
As the text of the appeal says, according to the order of Viktor Yanukovych’s government from July 17, 2003, and against the will of Ternopil residents, the buildings of Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra were excluded from Kremenets-Pochayiv State Historical-Architectural Reserve and transferred to the Monastery that belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate for 49-year-long free use. “This was the first step in transferring Pochayiv Lavra to the ownership of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate),” the document says. In addition, this fact also contributed to the expansion of pro-Russian sentiments among the clergy and the faithful, and transformed the Lavra to the centre of inter-confessional and interethnic hostility, – claim the initiators of the appeal.
The deputies of Ternopil regional council demand to cancel the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 and to transfer the buildings of the Lavra to state ownership once for all, as well as to give the opportunity to the representatives of other churches to hold service here. “We want to return this sacred place to state ownership, and then with an open competition for the right to use certain cultural facilities to give the opportunity to other churches, including the Greek Catholic, to hold service and pray here,” said Andriy Oliynyk, the deputy of Ternopil regional council from the UKROP party.
