Metropolitan Lazar: “May there be a holiday of Holy Pascha for all of us

joyful and peaceful!”

On the eve of the great holiday of the Resurrection of Christ, Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea kindly agreed to receive our correspondent at his residence and give a pre-holiday exclusive interview to our online publication “Crimean Echo”.

- Your Eminence! The Orthodox people celebrate the holiday of Christ's Resurrection with light and joy. Children especially love this holiday, perhaps without fully realizing its content. Do you remember how Easter was celebrated during your childhood, in your family?

I have the brightest, most beautiful memories of my childhood Easter...
Long before the onset of this great holiday, we, believing boys and girls, were preparing ourselves to meet this day. We went to church and took communion.

I had a craving for the church from early childhood, despite the fact that there were no clergy in our family. But this family was a believer. And the seed of Christ landed well on this soil and sprouted. And we looked forward to this Easter with such unforgettable joy!

Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea

After all, the Easter services were cheerful, cheerful, and bright. These Easter services spread over young, pure, children’s hearts and sprouted. And the Easter eggs that we beat each other to the cry of “Christ is risen!” Anyone whose testicle broke had to give it to a friend. We cheated here by filling the eggs with wax instead of the contents to make it harder. They made fun of us, but in a kind way...

But the most important memory is the ringing of the bells. We children always tried to sneak into the bell tower at least for a short time and ring the bell ourselves in order to inform the whole neighborhood about the great joy of the Resurrection of Christ. And what nature is like at this time! The sun is bright like spring, the birds are singing, the streams are babbling, snowdrops are crawling out from under the snow crust, everything is resurrecting...

Likewise, the Resurrection of Christ warms the souls of both children and adults. And the chant of the Easter service sounds: “A feast of feasts and a triumph of feasts.” This triumph of celebrations fills the soul and heart with joy from the fact that there is no death. And so that a person there does not manage to think with his sinful mind, but there is no death! The Lord defeated death and he proved by his Resurrection that death is defeated, that it does not exist, and the time comes for everyone when those lying in the grave will hear the Voice of God.

— As long as our parents are alive, we feel like children, regardless of age. When did you have to communicate with your mother recently, and what did she punish you during this communication?

— My mother is now 96 years old. She lives in Pochaev. My sister is looking after her now. I visit my mother regularly. Whenever we meet, we talk for a long time, talk about everything, remember the past, remember our childhood. But my childhood was very difficult, and those pre-war, war and post-war times were difficult. Mom had five of us and, thank God, everyone is alive and well. And, of course, mother’s words warm the heart. He says two or three words, and you look and a tear rolls down. It cannot be any other way.

- Do you get it from your mother, do you get a scolding?

- I get it, but how could it be otherwise without a mother’s scolding?

- And for what, if it’s not a secret?

- And because I rarely come. When we part, one question arises: when will I come again?

-Are you the eldest son?

- No, there is a brother, Victor, he is older than me, by profession he is an electric locomotive driver, now retired, lives in a village not far from Pochaev, in his homeland.

Remembering my childhood, my mother and turning my memory to the years I have lived, I came to the conclusion that life is interesting, life should be the most valuable thing in relation to God. If value is not lost, then life has been lived with benefit. It is rightly said that living life is not a field to cross. In a spiritual sense, this is very difficult, but the desire should only be for this. There is no other way and cannot be. If life is with God and in God, it is purposeful. Then you feel that you want to live, and you know for whom and for what you live. And we must understand that with these earthly moments it, life, does not end, but passes into another state, is its continuation. This peacoat, our body, lies in the ground, but the soul does not die, the soul ascends to the one who gave it to us. This is the depth of the universe created by God!

— Each of us has those whom we consider to be among our close friends. We first of all congratulate them on their personal holidays, and we would be the first to say to them on the day of Holy Easter a warm “Christ is risen!” If possible, name the people dearest to your heart whom you will congratulate on this bright Easter day not only as a Metropolitan, but also as a friend.

— You see on my desktop this hefty stack of prepared congratulations. And before that, at least a dozen such packs passed through my hands. These Easter greetings will go out to all my friends. Because I am in direct contact with these people here, in our holy Simferopol and Crimean diocese. I want the life of our diocese to be spiritually beautiful, so that spirituality spreads to all of them, and they do not hold this congratulation in their hand, do not put it off as a formal congratulation, albeit a pleasant one for them, but get down to business. This is what I write to my friends: “May the holiday of Holy Easter be joyful and peaceful for all of us, creating faith, love and hope in our souls. And this is work...”

This is what I write to teachers, our children, doctors and everyone. They are all my friends. I can't say, one is more a friend, one is less. They are all wonderful people who do good in the name of glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ who has risen.

— And the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych also expects your congratulations?

- How else? After all, he is a deeply religious Orthodox Christian. For this I thank God that our president is an Orthodox man.

— When you visit Russia, with whom do you communicate most among the Russian hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church?

— I meet and communicate with many people. But you know that at one time I served abroad in Argentina for many years. And there the diocese is now headed by Metropolitan Platon (Udovenko). This is the ruler whom I changed in this country. Of course, I am pleased to meet with him and talk, including about affairs in that same Argentina, in which I carried out my pastoral duty for 14 years, and this is such a period of time during which a lot could be done, and I managed to do a lot. I am grateful to God that I had the opportunity to work there in order to leave what our Orthodox Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and other Slavs so needed. All this work was aimed at ensuring that they preserve holy Orthodoxy in their souls, so that they not only lose this feeling, but also fully comprehend its depth, so that they live by it.

—Who was the first hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Argentina?

- Metropolitan Nikodim, an amazing man, He had a heavy burden to be the first. Back then, relations between our countries were very difficult. But the country is a country, and our people living in Argentina, who left the Fatherland for well-known reasons, wanted to remain Orthodox, because they were mostly believers, and in a foreign land they wanted to be saved in their Orthodoxy. Bishop Nikodim was a pioneer; at the cost of incredible efforts, he managed to blaze the path that other bishops had already followed. After him, the same Vladika Plato, whom I have already spoken about, came to Argentina, and this was his first period of service in Argentina, and then I and others. And we all are grateful to him, Metropolitan Nikodim, for everything he did to create and strengthen the diocese, and for us, his followers.

— In Soviet times, a bishop could only be seen outside the church fence on election day at a polling station. Today is a completely different time. The church has gone beyond the church fence, and it is no longer unusual for the bishop to communicate with schoolchildren and teachers in schools and student auditoriums. How deep do you think such communications leave a mark on a young soul? How far can the Orthodox Church go in this communication in order to strengthen its influence on the moral state of youth? What, in your opinion, needs to be done for this both on the part of secular society and on the part of the church itself?

— The Holy Church is that dear Home that educates us with the Holy Spirit. The Lord strengthens, builds and preserves us in this House. And we have nowhere to leave this House. We are in this House with God, the Master of the World, and in this House we must build relationships. How to build them can be seen differently by everyone. But the Lord gave us the Holy Gospel and indicated in it how we should build these relationships in this Orthodox House of ours. Of course, first of all, we must think about the younger generation, which is now both without God and with God, many know and many do not know. And just tell them, and the young soul reaches out to the bright. And the light is the Lord, this is Christ.

And the point is not even that the church goes beyond the church fence. The Church is trying to fulfill exactly the task that our Lord Jesus Christ himself set before us. The Church is a community of people united around Christ the Savior. How much pastoral work it took to achieve these meetings in schools and universities in order to be able to instruct our little children and youth on the righteous path.

I am sincerely grateful to the Ministry of Education of Crimea and teachers. We are all trying together to do a lot to give young people an understanding of the content and essence of Orthodoxy. This is a lot of work and it must be done with great care and with great love. This is also necessary because if not Orthodoxy, then something else can take its place. But you can’t graft a pear on an oak tree. Therefore, we need to talk about this: we are Slavs, we have Holy Orthodoxy, and in this Holy Orthodoxy we must strengthen ourselves, live and breathe this Orthodoxy.

— The unity of Orthodoxy is one of the painful points for Ukraine today. The Crimeans, its Orthodox population, took very hard the events that took place in connection with the threat of schism, especially in the last five years. I felt a little relieved after the historic visit of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' to the holy Crimean land. People demonstrated such solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church, which, perhaps, they have not seen for a long time. This suggests that Orthodoxy is guarded not only by the church, as a religious community, but also by ordinary people, who sometimes don’t even go to church much. What, in your opinion, is this phenomenon, if you can call it that? What is the secret of the spiritual power of Orthodoxy?

- But the phenomenon is not here! After all, we met our Father, the Patriarch, the man who directly, both in churches and in his private prayer at home, remembers us all, his entire flock. And this flock is numerous, it is in all corners of our planet. And He offers His prayer for everyone. And when He, our Father, appears, now in one city, now in another, He came home to His children, who greet Him as their father. They should not meet him in any other way, since the soul and heart tremble. Both this soul and this heart want to come into contact with a person who constantly thinks about you, prays for you, and who tries to make his entire flock, all his followers pleasing to God.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill spoke about this more than once, speaking to those gathered in squares, in cathedrals and near cathedrals, in his interviews with journalists who accompanied and covered his pastoral visit to Ukraine. Both deeply believers and those who are only drawn to Orthodoxy, both of them felt this spiritual beauty of the soul of their Father, who arrived only to help man be saved in our holy Orthodoxy.

— There are public organizations in Crimea that advocate preserving and strengthening fraternal ties with the people of Russia. They differ in the degree of influence, but each declares a desire to preserve the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches as a single whole. What would you wish for the leaders of such social movements as a wise person, as a religious figure who enjoys great authority in society.

— First of all, schism is a sin, a terrible crime. Because what was created over the centuries, starting with the coming of Christ the Savior, is destroyed, distorted, and presented in a completely different form by schismatics. The Church has been saved for many centuries and has conveyed the words of the Holy Gospel through the means of Orthodoxy, and suddenly someone says that we do not agree.

As for the split in Ukraine, it is purely political in nature. And no one doubts it. But in order to defeat this schism, those who initiated it must enter into true reason and ask for forgiveness from the holy canonical Orthodox Church, so that the Lord will forgive and the hierarchy will forgive. Then, and only then, can we escape the dangerous line of this split. And there is no other way, only through repentance!

Of course, first of all, the church itself should deal directly with overcoming the schism. But if this or that person heads this or that political or social force, is himself a believer and professes Orthodoxy, then the efforts of such people aimed at overcoming the schism are their Christian duty, and in the fulfillment of this duty they receive the prayerful support of the church.

And for those who stand for the unity of Orthodoxy, no matter what political or social force they represent, I can only wish one thing: pray and work for the unity of Orthodoxy and constantly turn to those who organized the schism in order to appeal to their conscience, to their reason .

— Orthodox Crimea is waiting for Easter. Both old and young are preparing for it, each in their own way, but preserving the traditions and customs bequeathed by our ancestors, observing the canons of the Holy Orthodox Church. Easter messages from the highest hierarchs of the church addressed to the flock have also become a long-standing tradition. Our publication intends to publish them on the eve of the Holy Resurrection of Christ. In addition, our publication, fulfilling its moral duty and obligation within the framework of the recently signed Memorandum with the Crimean Diocese, opens a permanent Orthodox line on its website. We ask for your blessing for this and invite you, Your Eminence, to be a permanent participant in this section. What could you wish our readers on the eve of the bright holiday of the Resurrection of Christ?

“Every good deed that we try to do together with you, together with your publication “Crimean Echo,” is done in the name of making our Orthodox faith prosper and live. What is faith? Faith, according to the word of the Holy Apostle Paul, is the fulfillment of things expected, confidence in things unseen. So, on the basis of this holy faith, we must create and do good deeds with you. I would like to wish that the plans outlined for your publication along the lines of Orthodoxy would be aimed at how to preserve, how to increase through the word of the shepherd our faith in our souls, especially in the souls of young people.

And how to preserve our Holy Orthodoxy in order to be like our great ancestors. An example for us, Crimeans, is St. Archbishop Luke. He lived a very difficult life, went through incredibly difficult trials, but what a mark he left behind! He devoted his life to the church, dedicated to creation. He wrote wonderful books, and I would really like young people to read these books, to read and think about what is written there.

Let the flame of faith and truth that your publication carries illuminate the minds and hearts of your readers. God help you and have a good time.

Christ is Risen!

[hr]
Speech by Bishop Lazar, Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea before the participants of the forum of the Simferopol organization movement “Russian Unity”
Brothers and sisters!

The prayer service is conducted by Bishop Lazar

What a wonderful address... These words say absolutely everything. We are truly both brothers and sisters in Christ. This has been emphasized more than once by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. It is a joy for me today, brothers and sisters, to be among you today to feel the breath of Holy Orthodoxy. Without it we cannot be brothers and sisters, and only it connects and strengthens us. Let us always remember this and feel each other’s elbow. Great days are coming. Today is Palm Saturday, tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Our Lord Jesus Christ, entering Jerusalem, knew perfectly well why he was entering this city, the eternal city, the spiritual city, in order to accept death on earth and to deify us all with his Resurrection. Who else but you and I, dear Slavs, dear brothers and sisters, should not feel this very moment when literally in a week we will give each other a spiritual smile and greet each other with the eternal words “Christ is Risen!”

I am grateful to God that I was able to see you all before such a holiday and congratulate you on this great day.

Last year, you and I experienced great joy, which had never happened before on our Crimean land, when His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' entered this blessed Crimean land. And we beat our foreheads before His Holiness that his feet were also in blessed Chersonesus, where he performed divine services, where he offered prayers. After all, he repeatedly stated that his arrival is the arrival of a pilgrim to gather us all and let us feel once and for all that together, in unity, we are strong. And apart we are nothing. So let us strive for this unity, the unity of Holy Orthodoxy, the unity of the Holy Church, and let us preserve and cherish this unity.

No one can ever, under any circumstances, violate this unity. Otherwise we will lose ourselves as we are today. So I wish that this longed-for unity would always be with us. The Lord said: “May you all be one as I am, your Father is with you and you are in me!” These longed-for words should be the basis of our work on this Crimean holy land, watered with the blood of our martyrs, the venerable saints. Therefore, the Crimean land is originally Orthodox. And you and I, Orthodox Christians, have loved and will love this land, because for us it is the breath of life. I cordially congratulate you all on this meeting. I think that you will solve many good deeds for the benefit of our God-saved Crimea, holy Orthodoxy, and most importantly, for the benefit of the salvation of your soul. May the Lord, with his invisible right hand, bless us all and guide us to goodness, happiness and peace. Be healthy and protected by God. May God help you in everything!

At the conclusion of his address, Bishop Lazar blessed the meeting participants with the icon of the Resurrection of Christ and presented this icon to the leader of the Crimean Unity movement, Sergei Aksenov.

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Easter message of Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea

EASTER MESSAGE

His Eminence LAZARUS, Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea, to God-loving shepherds, honorable monks and all the faithful children of the Simferopol and Crimean diocese

“Christ is risen, trampling down death and raising up the dead, people, rejoice.”

(Chorus of the 9th song of the Easter Canon)

Beloved in the Lord, all-honorable shepherds, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!

From the depths of my heart, filled with joy about Christ, who rose from the dead and resurrected the human race with Himself, I cordially congratulate you on the EASTER OF CHRIST, on the holiday of the BRIGHT RESURRECTION of CHRIST, and I address you with the words of the gospel that has sounded for thousands of years and demonstrates the triumph of the Christian faith:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Today we celebrate the greatest of holidays, we celebrate the most beautiful of holidays. The bright Easter joy shining in our hearts warms us among earthly worries, inspires us to live in goodness and love, and gives us a premonition of our own future resurrection.

This joy fills Heaven and earth, the visible and invisible world, the hearts and souls of those who believe in Christ. Saint John Chrysostom depicts the fullness of this joy in this way: “Now the Angels rejoice, the Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim rejoice, solemnly celebrating with us a holiday full of light - the Resurrection of Christ” (“Word for Easter”). Truly, this Holiday goes beyond the visible world and is the foundation of the life of the Church of Christ. It is no coincidence that the holy Apostle Paul writes with such conviction to the Corinthian Christians: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14).

Therefore, we now triumph and, together with the Heavenly Church, glorify the Risen Christ the Savior: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the Angels sing in Heaven, and grant us on earth to glorify You with a pure heart” (Resurrection stichera).

The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest miracle in the history of the world. With His Resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ marked the beginning of the general resurrection. The holy fathers captured this truth in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century.”

The risen Christ returned to us everything that we had lost through the fall of our ancestors, destroyed the mediastinum between God and people, opened the gates of Paradise to us, and gave us the opportunity to call ourselves children of God. Therefore, the Holy Church exclaims with such spiritual uplift: “This Day, the Lord has made it, let us rejoice and be glad on it” (Stichera of Easter).

My beloved! Truly, what happened two thousand years ago in Jerusalem on Easter night remains an incomprehensible mystery for us. The human mind cannot fully comprehend the omnipotence and wisdom of God, revealed in the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ. But in the temple, especially on the night of the Easter celebration, we clearly feel the living presence of the Risen Lord. The apostles testified to the world what their eyes saw and what their hands touched. However, we also testify to what fills our hearts - about the incomprehensible presence of the Risen Christ in the world, about the imperishable light of His Resurrection, about the incomparable Easter joy.

Dear brothers and sisters! This year is an anniversary year. We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War. We made a great sacrifice so that today we have the opportunity to live peacefully, pray calmly and work for the good of our native Fatherland. On these holy Easter days, I encourage each of you to offer your prayers for those thanks to whom we achieved our victory. Do not forget their feat and be worthy of this great sacrifice. Make every effort to ensure that no more blood is shed on our long-suffering land and that maternal tears do not water it.

Beloved fathers, brothers and sisters in the Lord! With Easter, we always open a new period in our lives. The Risen Christ renews us and gives us new strength to accomplish all our deeds - big and small.

With hope and hope, I appeal to everyone who is now young, full of strength and health: respect and honor old age. A caring, careful attitude towards older people is the fulfillment of the Gospel commandment to love one’s neighbors (Matthew 22:39).

Our high moral duty is to show courage and perseverance, not to lose heart, but, strengthened by the gifts of Christ's Easter, to be a support for those who find it especially difficult.

We need to sacredly preserve church unity and extend a hand of fraternal support to every person. We must work to transform this world, filling it with harmony, truth, love and beauty. Yes, this work does not promise to be either easy or fleeting. But only he, by the grace of God, is able to defeat the current troubles and disorder, heal enmity and disunity, and save us from despondency and despair. May the Risen Lord help us to succeed on this path, which, I believe, will lead our society to revival and prosperity.

Again and again I congratulate you all on the great and joyful holiday of Easter! May our joy in the Risen Christ increase in us, and through us throughout the world. Let us generously share this joy with our neighbors, bring the light of Christ’s Resurrection to the world, and joyfully exclaim again and again:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

CHRIST IS TRULY RISEN!

Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea LAZAR

Easter 2021 Simferopol

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In the world Rostislav Filippovich Shvets. Born on April 22, 1939 in the village. Komarin, now Kremenets district, Ternopil region, in a peasant family. At the age of 15 he became a novice at the Holy Spiritual Skete of the Pochaev Lavra, then for two years at the Dormition Zhirovitsky Monastery of the Minsk Diocese. In 1957 he entered the Minsk Theological Seminary. In 1958–1961 served in the ranks of the Soviet Army. In 1964 he graduated from the Odessa Theological Seminary, in 1968 from the Leningrad Theological Academy with a candidate of theology degree. From 1968 to 1971 He studied in graduate school at the Moscow Theological Academy and was an assistant at the Department of External Church Relations. In 1973 he was ordained a deacon, then a priest. In 1975, he was appointed to the clergy of the Argentine diocese, where he was simultaneously secretary of the Archbishop of Argentina and South America for five years. In 1980 he was appointed Bishop of Argentina and South America, Patriarchal Exarch of Central and South America. During his stay at the Argentine See (stayed until 1989), he united Orthodox compatriots in a patriotic association around the temple, and created a bishop’s choir from them. Built a number of temples. A plot of land in a fashionable area of Buenos Aires was acquired as the property of the Russian Orthodox Church. Using this site, he built a small five-story building for the diocese, where it is currently located. In honor of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' in 1988, he achieved the renaming of Charkes Square into the Square of St. Prince Vladimir, and a monument to this saint was erected there. A temple in honor of the Holy Trinity was opened in Brazil. In the province of Lanus, a plot was purchased on which a temple was built in honor of All Saints who shone in the Russian land, and Kirno-Kosta street was renamed Vladimirskaya. A diocesan house was purchased in Santa Rosa. In Chile, during the difficult Pinochet years, when church building was prohibited, a church hall was built, which was later converted into the Church of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian. In 1989 he was appointed Archbishop of Ternopil and Kremenets. Here the Holy Spiritual Skete of the Pochaev Lavra was opened, and also returned to the Orthodox Church and the Holy Epiphany Convent was opened. In the city of Kremenets, the building of the Pochaev Lavra Museum, where the Theological Seminary is now located, was returned. In 1991 he was appointed Archbishop of Odessa and Kherson. The Borisov Convent was opened; during the stagnant years, a medical laboratory was located there. The building of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, where the Theological Seminary was previously located, and other churches and buildings were returned. In 1992 he was appointed Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. In 2000 he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan. The Vladyka’s time at the Crimean See was filled with multifaceted fruitful activities for the benefit of the Holy Mother Church. Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) was canonized and glorified; a monument was erected in honor of the saint in Simferopol and the square was renamed. The new Crimean martyrs, led by the holy martyr Porfiry, were also glorified. In 2000, by the Jubilee Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, Saint Luke, as well as a host of Crimean saints, was included in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia for church-wide veneration. In 2008, Saint Gury (Karpov), Archbishop of Tauride, was canonized. In 2001, the St. Vladimir Chersonese Cathedral was restored, at the same time His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Vladimir, in the concelebration of Bishop Lazarus and in the presence of the President of Ukraine L. D. Kuchma and the President of Russia V. V. Putin, installed a domed cross here, and in 2002 Bishop Lazar, in the presence of the President of Ukraine, consecrated the cathedral bell. On April 3, 2004, the main altar of the cathedral was consecrated. From 2003 to the present, the restoration of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Simferopol has been underway.

Lazar (Shvets)

Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) since 1980, Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea.

Biography

Metropolitan Lazar (Rostislav Filippovich Shvets) was born on April 22, 1939 in the village of Komarin, founded in the 15th century on the territory of the modern Ternopil region of Ukraine.

After studying at the Pochaev Lavra and the Assumption Zhirovitsky Monastery, he entered the theological seminary of the city of Minsk (Belarus) in 1957. A year later he joined the army.

In 1961 he became a student at the theological seminary in Odessa, and after that he graduated from the theological seminary of Leningrad (Russian Federation) with a specialization in theology. Received the title of Candidate of Sciences.

Career

While working as a graduate student at the Moscow Theological Academy, he was involved in the activities of the Department of External Relations of the Church. Since 1971, he began working in a branch of this department in the capital of Ukraine.

In 1971, at the beginning of March, he received the title of deacon, and a week later - priest. From that time on, for four years he served in the Vladimir Monastery and in the Intercession Monastery for women.

He was appointed in 1975 as secretary and assistant to Archbishop Plato. The diocese was located in Argentina and united the Russian Orthodox churches of South and Central America.

After three years of work abroad, he received the title of archpriest.

In 1980, he was tonsured a monk at the Lavra in Pochaev and received the rank of archimandrite. At the same time, he was appointed Bishop of South America and Argentina, as well as exarch (representative) of the Patriarch in South and Central America.

Nine years later he returned to Ukraine, receiving the post of Archbishop of Kamenets and Ternopil.

In 1990, he participated in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian RSR, but did not get the required number of votes in the Ternopil region.

He was appointed to the post of Archbishop of Odessa and Kherson in 1991. A year later he became Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol.

In 2000, he was elevated to the most ancient episcopal rank - metropolitan.

Introduced to the Holy Synod of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2012.

In 2021, he served, blessed the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation and served as an employee of the Federal Security Service of Russia.

Achievements

He has church awards of the first degree (Seraphim of Sarov and the Nativity of Christ), second and third degrees (Prince Vladimir, Sergius of Radonezh and the Kiev-Pechersk monks Anthony and Theodosius).

Awarded the Ukrainian Orders of Prince Yaroslav the Wise and “For Merit,” as well as the Order of Friendship of Peoples. All awards took place before 2013.

Rumors and scandals

It must be admitted that many sources before the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine noted the extremely active nature of Metropolitan Lazar. Under his leadership, the diocese on the Crimean peninsula almost doubled, increasing the number of parishes.

After the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, in 2015 he consecrated a stone dedicated to the participants in the “self-defense of Crimea.”

In 2021, like many leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate church, he began to make statements about the illegality of granting the Tomos to the Church of Ukraine and to participate in meetings of the Council of the UOC MP dedicated to this.

Wealth and source of income

He receives his main income as one of the ministers of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Personal life and family

Not married, no children.

Photo and video

Biography

Metropolitan Lazar (Shvets) was born on April 22, 1939 in the village.
Komarin, Kremenets district, Ternopil region, in a peasant family. After graduating from school, he entered the Dormition Pochaev Lavra (the Holy Spiritual Skete) as a novice, then lived for two years in the Dormition Zhirovichi Monastery of the Minsk Diocese. In 1957 he entered the Minsk Theological Seminary. In 1958-1961. served in the ranks of the Sov. Army. In 1964 he graduated from Odessa Theological Seminary. In 1968 he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy with a candidate's degree in theology. In the same year he entered the Graduate School at the Moscow Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1971. While studying at the Postgraduate School, he served as an assistant at the DECR. After graduating from the Graduate School, he was an assistant at the DECR branch in Kyiv. On March 5, 1972, Metropolitan Philaret of Kyiv in the Kiev Cathedral in the name of Holy Prince Vladimir ordained him a deacon, and on March 12 - a presbyter. Pastoral service took place in the Pokrovsky Convent and in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv. In 1975 he was appointed priest of the Argentine diocese and secretary of the Argentine Archbishop. In 1978 he was elevated to the rank of archpriest. In 1979 he was awarded a cross with decorations. By the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen and the Holy Synod of March 20, 1980, the clergyman of the Argentine diocese, Archpriest Shvets, was appointed Bishop of Argentina and South America, Patriarchal Exarch of Central and South America. 1 Apr. 1980, the governor of the Pochaev Lavra, Archimandrite. Jacob tonsured him as a monk, and on April 7 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. 18 Apr 1980, in the St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv, he was consecrated Bishop of Argentina and South America. The ordination was performed by: metropolitans: Filaret of Kiev and Galicia, Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna; archbishops: Nikodim of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky, Anthony of Chernigov and Nizhyn, Macarius of Uman; bishops: Varlaam of Chernivtsi and Bukovina, John of Zhitomir and Ovruch. On June 20, 1985, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. On June 26 of the same year he was appointed Archbishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia. On October 4 of the same year, he was again sent to the Argentine diocese and appointed Patriarchal Exarch of Central and South America. During his stay there, Archbishop Lazar united his Orthodox compatriots and created a bishop's choir. Awarded the right to wear two panagias. Since 1989 - Archbishop of Ternopil and Kremenets. In 1991 he became Archbishop of Odessa and Kherson, and in 1992 he was appointed Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. During his tenure at the Simferopol and Crimean See, the clergy of the diocese grew from 30 people to 200, the number of parishes - from 50 to 350, eight monasteries were opened. Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea has awards: Order of St. Vladimir, II degree (1989); for service in Argentina he was awarded the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, II and III degrees; by the Argentine government; by the government of the USSR for peacekeeping activities in Argentina - the Order of Friendship of Peoples; for holding the International Jubilee Conference dedicated to the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ “Their broadcast went forth into all the earth” by His Beatitude Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, he was awarded the Order of Saints Anthony and Theodosius of the Pechersk; The President of Ukraine awarded the Order of Merit, III degree, for peacekeeping activities. Works:

“Orthodox theological analysis of the interpretations of the book of the prophet Daniel by Protestant theologians.” (PhD essay). Speech at the naming of Bishop of Argentina and South America. JMP. 1980, no. 7, p. 33. Literature:

JMP. 1980, No. 5, p. 8; No. 7, p. 32. -“-, 1981, No. 2, p. 22; No. 6, p. 28; No. 10, p. 31. -“-, 1982, No. 2, p. 15. -“-, 1983, No. 1, p. 11, 23; No. 7, p. 12; No. 9, p. 5. -“-, 1985, No. 1, p. 24; No. 3, p. 24; No. 8, p. 9, 29. -“-, 1986, No. 11, p. 3.

MEDIA MONITORING: UOC MP: divide and conquer

In November 2008, perhaps the most unexpected event in the church life of Crimea happened. At a meeting of the Holy Synod, which took place on November 11 in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, it was decided to divide the Crimean diocese of the UOC-MP into two parts.

No one has yet really understood what is so special about this event. However, for knowledgeable people, the decision of the Synod speaks for itself: centrifugal tendencies are gaining strength in the UOC, threatening its integrity and canonical unity with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Let us briefly return to the decision of the Holy Synod of the UOC. As already mentioned, the Crimean diocese was divided in two: the Dzhankoy diocese was formed, which included the Dzhankoy, Krasnogvardeysky, Krasnoperekopsky, Nizhnegorsky, Pervomaisky, Razdolnensky and Sovetsky districts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which previously belonged to the Simferopol diocese. And the Simferopol diocese included Alushta, Evpatoria, Kerch, Simferopol, Sudak, Feodosia, Sevastopol, as well as the Bakhchisarai, Belogorsky, Kirov, Leninsky, Saki, Simferopol and Black Sea regions of autonomy. The ruling bishop of the Simferopol diocese retains the title “Simferopol and Crimean,” and the bishop of the Dzhankoy diocese is called “Dzhankoy and Razdolnensky.” Management of the Simferopol diocese remains with Metropolitan Lazar, and Archimandrite Nektariy (Frolov), a clergyman of the Rivne diocese, has been appointed to be the Bishop of Dzhankoy and Razdolnensky. That, in fact, is all that is officially known about the decision of the Holy Synod. It is quite obvious that it is almost impossible to find out the background of this event, given the traditional closeness of internal church life.

However, in order to analyze and objectively evaluate such a seemingly ordinary event through the prism of the processes taking place within the UOC, it is necessary to describe in general terms the situation in the Moscow Patriarchate. As the news agency “E-Crimea” has already written (see “Threats and Prospects of Crimean Orthodoxy”), two opposing groups of influence have formed within the structure of the UOC: the so-called. “Orthodox” under the leadership of Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and supporters of the creation of the United Local Church (SLC), supported by some “orange” politicians. Each of these groups seeks to expand its influence to as many Ukrainian dioceses as possible. To a certain extent, the specific results of this activity will determine the extent to which the “United Local Church” project, so widely advertised by President Yushchenko and his entourage, will be implemented in Ukraine. As for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Crimean diocese is traditionally considered the largest in Ukraine and the most strictly focused on maintaining canonical unity with the Russian Orthodox Church. Even a native of Western Ukraine, Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea, over many years of service in Crimea, adapted so much to local realities that he never allowed himself to even hint at a break between the UOC-MP and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since 80% of the entire religious environment of Crimea consists of communities of the UOC-MP, it is unlikely that it will be possible to quickly and painlessly organize the entry of the Crimean diocese into the United Local Church (if, of course, this project is implemented in practice). Whether Bishop Lazar will carry out appropriate explanatory work among Crimean Orthodox believers is a moot point. Therefore, in the current situation, there can only be two solutions: to remove Metropolitan Lazar from his position and replace him with another hierarch, or to divide the Crimean diocese into several autonomous districts, at the head of which to put “our own” creatures. On the sidelines of the church, they began to actively talk about the division of the Crimean diocese back in the summer of this year. But it was quite difficult to determine from which camp the initiative was coming. Now everything is becoming much clearer. It is obvious that the hierarchs of the UOC, oriented towards the creation of the SOC, decided to “strengthen” Crimea with more loyal clergy. The head of the Orthodox Choice organization, Yuri Egorov, says that recently there have been “alarming signals” from the eastern regions of the country, indicating that part of the hierarchy of the UOC has begun to cooperate with the authorities in the matter of Ukrainization. “We have long noticed that Ukrainian-speaking bishops born in Western Ukraine are for some reason sent to the East of Ukraine, where there is a Russian-speaking population,” Egorov stated. Thus, Crimea was no exception. Archimandrite Nektary, a clergyman of the Rivne diocese, was placed at the head of the Dzhankoy diocese. It may well be that after a certain time, at the level of Orthodox believers whose parishes are part of the Dzhankoy diocese, appropriate “propaganda” work will begin, aimed at creating a positive attitude towards the idea of creating the SOC. It is difficult to predict whether this process will be accompanied by an “exacerbation of relations” between the Simferopol and Dzhankoy dioceses.

It is possible that if Bishop Lazar, for his part, begins to demonstrate excessive activity in terms of helping to strengthen the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in Crimea, then he may well be asked to “retire.” Yu. Egorov, already mentioned by us, notes that recently there has been a process of “pushing aside” supporters of unity with the Russian Church - such bishops are being retired, despite their advanced age. At the same time, the highest title of the UOC - metropolitan - was received by Archbishop Saphrony of Cherkassy, who had previously advocated the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate.

In any case, “the process has begun.” And if the “orthodoxies” within the UOC lose their positions against the backdrop of the growing influence of supporters of the EOC on internal processes in the Moscow Patriarchate, Crimea will begin to be even more actively strengthened with the necessary religious “cadres” who are ready, not in word, but in deed, to support the idea of the UOC-MP joining the Local Church.

Igor Sarmatov

"E-CRIMEA", November 14, 2008

Published: 11/17/2008 at 6:15 pm

Headings: News feed, Media monitoring

Brief information

Biography

At the age of 15 he entered the Holy Spiritual Skete of the Pochaev Lavra as a novice.

In 1958-1961 he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR.

On March 5, 1971, he was ordained a deacon, on March 12, a priest, and served in the Pokrovsky Convent and in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv.

On July 25, 1975, he was appointed to the clergy of the Argentine diocese, where he served as secretary of the Archbishop of Argentina and South America Plato (Udovenko).

In 1978 he was elevated to the rank of archpriest.

On April 1, 1980, he was tonsured a monk at the Pochaev Lavra, and on April 7, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

On April 18, 1980, in Kyiv, he was consecrated Bishop of Argentina and South America and appointed Patriarchal Exarch of Central and South America.

In 1990, he ran for the Supreme Council of Ukraine in the Zbarazh electoral district (Ternopil region), for - 38.3% of the votes, 2nd place, lost to the writer Dmitry Pavlychko[2].

On February 11, 1991, he was appointed Archbishop of Odessa and Kherson. Due to its active adherence to the idea of autocephaly, the UOC “was literally expelled from the pulpit by its flock”[3]. He justified the need to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephalous status with the hope that in this case the schismatics would return to the fold of the canonical Church. Took part in the Bishops' Council on May 26-27, 1992 in Kharkov; during the election of the new Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the first round he received 2 votes.

On July 27, 1992 he was transferred to the Simferopol department. In 2008, the Simferopol diocese lost seven districts in the northern part of the Crimean peninsula, allocated to the independent Dzhankoy and Razdolnensky diocese, and in December 2012, two more districts, allocated to the Feodosia and Kerch diocese.

On May 8, 2012, he was appointed a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP[4].