MOSCOW, June 4 Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine on the feast of the Holy Trinity celebrated the liturgy in the church of St. Agapit of the Caves on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the temple was full of people, follows from the video provided by eyewitnesses.
Metropolitan Onufry congratulated the faithful on the feast of the Holy Trinity. The temple was filled with parishioners, despite the persecution that the Ukrainian authorities are now carrying out against the UOC.
Over the past year, the Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the recent history of the country. With the support of the authorities, the schismatic OCU conducts raider seizures of churches, nationalists and schismatics attack the clergy and believers. Local authorities in different regions of Ukraine made decisions to ban the activities of the UOC, and a draft on its actual ban in Ukraine was submitted to the country's parliament. The Security Service of Ukraine initiates criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, conducts «counterintelligence activities» — searches of bishops and priests, churches and monasteries in search of evidence of «anti-Ukrainian activities.» Many members of the clergy have been arrested, and some have been subject to state sanctions. In March, an adviser to the head of Volodymyr Zelensky's office, Mikhail Podolyak, said that in Ukraine «there should be the only Ukrainian church», alluding to the schismatic OCU, and called for «physically cleansing» the canonical UOC.
Also, the Ukrainian authorities are trying to expel the clergy of the UOC from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the oldest monastery in Rus'. It was nationalized by the Soviet authorities, then in the 80s of the XX century, its buildings gradually began to be given for use, but not for the ownership of the Church. And in 2023, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine terminated the lease agreement with the monastery and began to select temples. Now the abbot of the Lavra is under house arrest, and the monastery has filed a lawsuit, alleging the illegality of breaking the lease agreement by the Ukrainian authorities. The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko said that the monks of the canonical UOC could remain in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra if they transferred to the schismatic OCU.
The Day of the Holy Trinity is one of the «twelfth», 12 main church holidays. The date is movable, celebrated on the 50th day after Easter. According to the Gospel, after His Resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to people, after which he ascended to heaven (the feast of the Ascension of Christ). As it is said in Holy Scripture, Christ preached that it would be better for the apostles if He left, because otherwise «the comforter (Holy Spirit — Ed.) will not come to you» (John 16:7). The Church says that the Spirit descended ten days after the Ascension and fifty days after the Resurrection: on the Day of the Holy Trinity. Hence the second name of the holiday — Pentecost. After that, the apostles spoke in different languages and spread the teachings of Christ in the world. Therefore, the Trinity — the descent of the Holy Spirit — is considered the birth of the Christian church.