On May 2, Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) expelled hieromonk Simon (Novikov) from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra for failing to commemorate Patriarch Cyril (Gundyaev) during the service.
This was reported by Father Petro Semashchuk on Facebook.
He recalled that at the onset of the war, the clergy at the Lavra suggested not to commemorate Patriarch Cyril during the services in their premises as the latter blessed the Russian troops for the “special operation in Ukraine.” However, the Lavra chief, Pavlo Lebid (representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine) snubbed the request and demanded that Cyril (Gundyaev) be commemorated as “our great Lord and Father.”
It should be recalled that Pavlo used to suggest that Russia would not go to war with Ukraine.
