Tears of joy streamed down worshippers’ faces as Ukraine’s main church celebrated a “return” to Kyiv’s Cathedral of the Assumption on Orthodox Christmas day, shortly after taking control of it from a rival church with alleged ties to Russia. | Reuters
“During these days of festivities, with strong feelings we ask God: Help us to defeat the enemy, who brought grief into our home. Help us to finally drive out the foreign invasion from the Ukrainian land,” said the OCU’s Metropolitan Epifaniy I.
Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, who attended the service with the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, posted a message on Facebook celebrating what he said was the end of three-and-a-half centuries of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’s “capture” by Moscow. “I hope that this year all the churches will come to an agreement and we will celebrate Christmas together on December 25th,” he wrote.Ukraine has about 30 million Orthodox believers, divided between different church communities. The war, now in its 11th month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the OCU, which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church .
Despite cutting ties, the UOC still faces allegations of pro-Russian views and direct collaboration with Moscow, which it denies, from Ukraine’s government and from much of Ukraine’s press and civil society. The UOC says it is the victim of a political witch hunt by its enemies in government.The handover of the cathedral took many by surprise – an OCU priest, Vasyl Rudnytskyi, looked stunned as he walked towards the building’s gates amid the deafening pealing of bells.
Some of the UOC’s clergy and many of its worshippers moved to the OCU, to the former organisation’s dismay. Both churches say the other is canonically illegitimate. Although the OCU soon had more worshippers than the old church, the UOC maintained control of over 12,000 churches, including the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra complex.
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