Hundreds of UOC believers not allowed to attend services in Lavra on time

The police blocked the parishioners from entering the Lavra. Photo: UOJ

On the morning of July 9, 2023, several hundred believers of the UOC could not get to services in the Lower Lavra on time, the police did not let them in, the UOJ correspondent reports.

The police blocked the entrance to the Lavra because the Ministry of Culture, which declared the monastery the property of the Reserve, tightened the time for access to the territory on July 6.

As a result, divine services in the temples of the Lavra began without parishioners. They were not even allowed into the church of St. Agapit of Pechersk, which is located right next to the police checkpoint. Only at 9:00 the police began to let them inside. It happened very slowly because everyone's passport was checked. As a result, most of the parishioners were able to get to the liturgy only closer to the middle or even the end of the service.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Ministry of Culture had tightened the schedule for the stay of parishioners in the Lower Lavra.

Read also

OCU “hierarch” selling fake ID documents sent to pre-trial detention center

The Ivano-Frankivsk court has chosen a preventive measure for the OCU "bishop" suspected of issuing fictitious ordination certificates for the rank of deacon to evade mobilization.

Court postpones hearing in Upper Lavra case

The next hearing on the issue of allowing the brethren of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery of the UOC access to the churches of the Upper Lavra will take place on March 12, 2026.

In Chernihiv, Jehovah’s Witness believer sentenced to 5 years for AWOL

The Kozelets District Court of Chernihiv Region found the man guilty of unauthorized abandonment of a military unit and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment.

DESS initiates lawsuit to liquidate Korets Monastery

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) is seeking the liquidation of the Holy Trinity Korets Convent of the UOC.

His Beatitude Onuphry serves litiya for fallen soldiers

On the fourth anniversary of the full-scale war, the Primate of the UOC led a memorial service and blessed church-wide prayers for peace and for Ukraine’s defenders.

Zelensky prays with Jews, Muslims, Catholics, OCU, and UGCC at Kyiv Sofia

At the event in St. Sofia of Kyiv, Sheikh Ahmed Tamim asked Allah for “victory over the enemy for the sake of Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses.”