Ukraine’s Culture Minister Yevhen Nyschuk has said, as of now, St. Sophia’s Cathedral is not being considered as a place for holding regular religious services.
“The Sophia of Kyiv is just like a second Jerusalem. There are no plans to use the Sophia for regular religious services. It is the Refectory Church (the Smaller Sophia) where worshipping services are held. Today we are not talking about the Sophia as an object for an operating church,” Nyschuk told reporters on December 13 in response to a question whether the St. Sophia’s Cathedral will become the main church of the united local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
As to the changes in the status of subordination and use of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra after the Unification Assembly, the minister said that “no-one will evict anyone.” “However, we do hope that the main sacred places of Ukraine—the Lavras (monasteries)—of which there are three and another one in Khersones, will pray for Ukrainian soldiers, for the Ukrainian nation, Ukrainian authorities and for Ukrainian people,” the minister said.
As reported earlier, on December 5, 2018, President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine said that a unification assembly in charge of creating a united local Orthodox Church in Ukraine will take place at the St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv on December 15.
