The Russian Orthodox Church requested two forest plots from the authorities of the Leningrad Region for the parish of the Church of St. Seraphim of Vyritsky, writes 47news. It is planned to allocate two sites: one – 4.75 hectares, located in the Mill forest, and the second – 209.1 hectares in the Ontsevsky forest park. According to the rector of the temple, Bishop Kirill, the need to build a temple and a convent here speaks of the "prophecy of the elder."
Local residents collect signatures to prevent the construction of the temple. As Dmitry Yagofarov, a member of the working group under the council of deputies of the Vyritsky urban settlement, explains, the most visited parts of the forest are transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, along which, moreover, the eco-route passes. If the territory is transferred, then the tenant will be able to enclose it.
The reason why it is necessary to build a temple and a monastery here, Bishop Kirill explains by the fact that Vyritsa itself is densely built up, which means that in order to fulfill the “prophecy of Seraphim Vyritsky”, you will have to go deep into the forest. The priest assures that the entire territory is not supposed to be fenced off, and it will have to be closed only at certain hours "for the privacy of the sisters."
In addition, the ROC is going to create a kind of social project for “family holidays” in the leased territories, for which it has no money. However, the church hopes for "some kind of state partnership, state programs." It is possible that visitors to this complex will be charged a "small fee".
On June 4, the icon "Holy Trinity" by Andrei Rublev was transported to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and placed in a glass capsule. Previously, she stood in the Tretyakov Gallery. She was transferred to the temple at the direction of Vladimir Putin. May 24 Members of the Commission on the Culture of Ancient and Medieval Russia of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences "History of World Culture" in a letter to the Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova asked her not to allow the transfer of the icon, since the ancient monument would not withstand this transfer and would be destroyed.