UOC comments on footage of collapsing churches in Ukraine
The UOC said there are double standards in preserving sacred heritage: while churches are being taken from the Church, neglected shrines are left to decay.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church responded to a video report by blogger Taras Havryk showing abandoned churches in Lviv region deteriorating and collapsing, saying that activists are sounding the alarm while the state is seizing churches from the Church yet taking no real measures to preserve neglected shrines. The official comment was published by the UOC’s Information and Education Department.
The Church noted that the condition of abandoned shrines clearly demonstrates the absence of any systematic state policy for preserving sacred heritage – not only in Lviv region, but across other parts of the country as well.
“Against the backdrop of active discussions about confiscating functioning religious buildings from the Church and transferring them into state management, hundreds of unique churches and monasteries that require immediate restoration remain outside the state’s real attention. The issue of preserving them has gone virtually unresolved for decades,” the statement says.
The UOC also stressed that, in this context, the Ministry of Culture’s actions cause serious concern among believers and members of the public. “For a long time the ministry has been unable to ensure the proper preservation of a significant number of architectural monuments of a sacred character, while continuing the practice of expropriating churches and monasteries, turning them into museums,” the Information and Education Department said.
The UOC press service drew special attention to the situation at the Kyiv–Pechersk Lavra: “Despite the fact that the monastery spent decades reviving the shrine and maintaining it, beginning in 2023 the monastery was stripped of the right to use a number of churches. In particular, the Refectory Church, traditionally a place of worship, is being turned by museum administrators into a venue for secular events, exhibitions, and concerts.”
The Information Department added that although “ordinary believers are barred from entering the Lavra caves, the media have repeatedly recorded how certain representatives of the OCU were brought to the shrine, as if ‘through connections.’”
“In addition, a number of other monastic buildings are on the reserve’s balance sheet – and for years they have remained neglected: crosses periodically fall from them, and plaster crumbles,” the statement says.
As the UOJ reported earlier, the media showed how abandoned churches in Lviv region are crumbling and collapsing.
