Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, accused the Ukrainian authorities of persecuting the church. This happened after a Christmas liturgy was held by Epiphanius in the cathedral of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU).
According to the Ukrainian edition of “Strana”, on January 7, the head of the OCU held a Christmas service in the Usskompensky Cathedral in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The liturgy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was held here.
Many soldiers and politicians came to the service. The cathedral was attended by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Verkhovna Rada Spokesperson Ruslan Stefanchuk, Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko and others.
“Instead of uniting under the guise of what was going on in the country, they began to persecute the Church. And once in the Church, then at the beginning – Christ, ”said the rector.
The Metropolitan believes that after the service of the OCU, the Assumption Cathedral experienced “anger”. “We were ten thousand, we were a thousand, but they had machine guns and pistols. They took up arms against their own people,” the abbot believes.
Previously, the Ukrainian police afflicted Checking documents at the entrance to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.