Authorities allow Metropolitan Arseniy to hold his first service in 1.5 years

On Sunday, November 2, 2025, Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk celebrated his first service in a year and a half of confinement. In Dnipro’s St. Seraphim Church, the abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra held a memorial service for his spiritual mentor – Schema-Archbishop Alipiy (Pohrebniak), who reposed four years earlier, on November 2, 2021.

The day before, the defense attorneys had agreed with the judge that the next hearing on the preventive measure would begin no earlier than 12:00, since Sunday morning is when believers attend church. However, it was later learned that the session had been scheduled for 10:00, preventing the hierarch from serving the Divine Liturgy.

Before the memorial service, Metropolitan Arseniy addressed the faithful with his first archpastoral word since his imprisonment. He shared his memories of the ever-memorable Bishop Alipiy, calling him a man of spiritual discernment and foresight.

The Metropolitan recalled one incident when a woman came to Bishop Alipiy with seemingly insoluble problems. “I was then a young hieromonk and wondered: ‘This really is a hopeless situation! What will Vladyka say?’” Metropolitan Arseniy recounted.

“Vladyka listened and then calmly said: ‘Well, my dear, in your case we will turn to the most reliable and proven experience – to prayer.’ Only a man of prayer could say such words, whose own prayer bore real fruit in people’s lives,” the hierarch noted.

He also spoke about the traditional Orthodox attitude toward prayer for the departed, quoting old priests: “It’s interesting to pray for the reposed – you pray for them, and you feel their prayer in return.”

“That’s why on parental Saturdays the churches used to be filled to the brim. It wasn’t just about remembrance – it was a spiritual communion between us, who came to the church, and our departed relatives, who at that moment were praying for us,” the Metropolitan explained.

He recalled that in his native village, even people who had survived war and famine, having lost loved ones, always filled the churches on parental Saturdays: “They were all hard-working country folk, but on those days the temples were as crowded as on Pascha.”

At the end of the service, Metropolitan Arseniy asked everyone to pray for the ever-memorable Schema-Archbishop Alipiy. Concelebrating with him were the parish rector, Archpriest Oleksandr, Hieromonk Ioann, and other clergy.

This memorial service became a testimony that even under the harshest circumstances, Metropolitan Arseniy remains faithful to his pastoral calling.

Recall that on October 28, 2025, after a year and a half in pre-trial detention, Metropolitan Arseniy was released on bail but was immediately rearrested. Since October 30, daily hearings have been held in Dnipro’s Sobornyi District Court on the choice of preventive measure in a second criminal case against him (under Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code).

The prosecution insists that the hierarch be returned to custody. His lawyers argue that further detention would endanger the life of the seriously ill hierarch and are asking the court to choose an alternative preventive measure.

Earlier, bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appealed to President Zelensky, asking him to assist in securing Metropolitan Arseniy’s release.