"The UOC let in laity there": Lotysh explains why OCU received Lavra church
The "Life-Giving Spring" church in Kyiv has become a garrison church where the OCU now holds events.
Avrahamiy Lotysh, the OCU "Prior" of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, explained in an interview with We are Ukraine the transfer of the "Life-Giving Spring" church under the jurisdiction of Epifaniy Dumenko.
According to him, the church had been used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), but access for laity was restricted due to legal proceedings. However, representatives of the UOC still allowed laypeople to enter the church.
"This became the impetus to transfer this church to the military and designate it as a garrison church," Abraham Lotysh noted.
As the UOJ reported, on the evening of August 13, photos of the sealed "Life-Giving Spring" church appeared online. Shortly thereafter, a letter from the Director of the National Reserve, Maksym Ostapenko, was published, proposing that the monks hand over the keys to the public reserve.
