Lavra's "Life-Giving Spring": hundreds under the UOC, none under the OCU
A "service" of the OCU in the Lavra church taken from the UOC. Photo: OCU
On September 23, at the Lavra Church "Life-Giving Spring," the OCU held its "service" for the new-style Nativity of John the Baptist, attended by only 3 (!) parishioners besides Dumenko's clerics.
This church had been completely rebuilt in the 1990s by the monks and faithful of the UOC. For nearly thirty years, a strong, vibrant community flourished there. But in 2023, when the authorities tightened their grip on the Lavra, police first restricted the number of parishioners allowed at services, and a year later drove them out entirely, handing the temple over to the OCU.
Now the “Life-Giving Spring” stands deserted. The OCU’s makeshift “brotherhood” of about ten men tours around multiple Lavra churches, and when their turn finally comes to this one, there are no faithful – which is only natural.
By contrast, footage from the temple feast of the UOC in 2023 shows hundreds of believers. Those who could not fit inside were driven outside the Lavra gates by the police and stood pressed against the fence. Since then, all of them have been forced to scatter to other parishes in Kyiv.
No one has taken their place. The church is empty.
Any government is chosen by the people, and it is obliged to act in their interests. What is the interest of Ukrainians who have been deprived of their shrine?
Read also
Portrait of the “сonscience of the nation”
Shevchuk waxes eloquent about the uniqueness of the Ukrainian nation and the value of human life – while supporting the sweeping mobilization that is grinding that very nation down.
OCU in the Lavra: When a recording replaces the choir
Parishioners have been pushed out of the Lavra. The monks are barred from the churches. But there is room for a handful of OCU “monks.”
Sviatohirsk murder no one is allowed to talk about
Logic suggests that Zelensky was informed about the monk’s murder that very day.
Sviatohirsk Lavra tragedy: A confession of faith or not?
The killers came to the monastery and, after hearing the words “Glory to our Lord God” in response, began to kill. What matters is that the victims were given a choice: they could give the “right” answer and escape death.
Have the talking points on the Sviatohirsk murder already been rolled out?
Espreso gives viewers the unmistakable impression that nothing particularly terrible happened – and that no one should feel too sorry for the “Moscow Patriarchate monks.”
Why are a rabbi and an exarch pleading for corruption suspects?
The rabbi and the exarch are both highly intelligent men and cannot fail to understand that their actions are dealing a serious blow to their reputations. Yet they still went to court. Why?