UOC hierarch urges believers to join nationwide prayer for Lavra

Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria). Photo: a video screenshot of the UOC YouTube channel

The head of the UOC Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluki, made a video appeal, in which he called upon all believers of the UOC to join the all-Ukrainian prayer for the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

"The fate of this all-Ukrainian and world shrine is important for everyone, who considers themselves to be an Orthodox Christian,” said the bishop. “And today we cannot stay aloof from the processes which occur in connection with the attempts to take this monastery away from the Church, to expel the monks from it and turn it into a museum as it was in Soviet times. Therefore, we urge all of you to join the all-Ukrainian prayer for the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

The Metropolitan noted that now in Lavra "daily and round the clock, there are prayers to the Mother of God, to Sts Anthony and Theodosius and all the wonderworkers of the Kyiv Caves with the prayer to send peace and blessing to Ukraine and our people and also to reason with all those who rebel against this world shrine today".

"You and I are witnessing how the devil is rebelling against God with particular fury today, how the forces of evil are trying to harm the Church. We cannot fight against this spiritual evil with aggression, we must confront it with our prayer, fast and deep faith," the archbishop stressed.

He noted that every believer can come to the Lavra "to share his prayerful sighs with the monastery brethren and make a spiritual offering to God”. Those who do not have such an opportunity are urged to pray at home, in their churches and monasteries. According to him, it is possible to join the uninterrupted prayer in the Lavra through a broadcast on all social networks of the UOC.

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