Church of Ukraine Urges Return of Lost Properties

The mainstream Ukrainian Orthodox Church has called for the Ukrainian government to pass legislation clearing the way for the return of church properties to their rightful owners. The spokesman for the Church of Ukraine specifically singled out the schismatic Kiev Patriarchate as a culprit in the illegal expropriation of church properties and funds in the 1990s when his organization enjoyed government support.

The cathedral of the Kiev Patriarchate, St. Volodymyr's in Kiev, is one of many properties illegally taken by the organization when it broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate following the decision of the Holy Synod not to elect Metropolitan Philaret (Denisenko) of Kiev as Patriarch of Moscow. It was built under the Russian Empire through the donations of peasants from throughout Rus' and was also the cathedra of the Church of Ukraine under the Soviet Yoke, so its alienation from the Church of Rus' is keenly felt in Kiev and elsewhere.

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