The vicar of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Pavlo (Lebid), admitted that at one of the prayers, the parishioners sang the song "The bell floats, floats over Russia, Mother-Rus is waking up."
In his video message, Pavlo stated that the priest who led this prayer was suspended.
"They put it on the Internet; allegedly in the Lavra, we pray for Russia and the like. This is a false fact because, at the liturgy, we pray to God for our state, for our army, for our president and commemorate only our head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [Moscow Patriarchate], His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphrius," Pavlo said.
According to him, the specified song is not a liturgical song. He called her secular. Father Zachary, Paul says, is now strictly prohibited from serving the liturgy because of the incident.
In this appeal, another representative of the Ukrainian Communist Party of Ukraine stated that a "group of activists" performed the "folk" song after the prayer service. The priest himself allegedly did not hear what the "activists" were singing, as he was "busy anointing" the parishioners.
Now the Spiritual Council will decide who will be punished for this incident.
- The day before, a video from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was shared on social networks, in which believers are probably praying for Russia. The SBU stated that they will check this fact and the situation will not remain without a reaction.