On Sunday, November 13, a video released by OCU priest Mykhailo Omelyan went viral on social media.

In the Church of All Saints of Pechersk on the territory of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra,

women performed a song glorifying Russia

.

"The bell floats, floats over Russia, Mother Russia is waking up," sang the assembled choir.

The video

was shot by Vitaly Shpak, a graduate student of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy

, on November 12, when he was conducting a tour of the Lavra for friends.

At a time when Ukraine is losing its best sons and daughters.

In the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, they do not forget their Moscow masters... November 12, 2022, at the same time as air alarm.

Posted by Vitaly Shpak on Saturday, November 12, 2022.

Priest Zacharias was suspended

 As it turned out, the video is neither a montage nor a fake.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reacted to the scandal over chants about "Mother Russia".

The vicar of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavlo of Vyshgorod and Chornobyl explained that the women sang after the service led by Father Zachary. 

The Metropolitan added that now the priest is banned from liturgies and prayers.

At the same time, the governor of the Lavra emphasized that the information that they pray for Russia in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a slander.

"It was posted on the Internet that we in the Lavra are supposedly praying for Russia. This is a false fact. Because during the liturgy we pray to God, we pray for our state, for our army, for our president and commemorate only our superior, the most blessed metropolitan Onufria," says the governor of the Lavra.

People who come to worship sing...

Archimandrite of the UOC Polykarp (Linenko), who is the head of the metropolitan choir, explained that one priest sings the prayer, and people who come to the service sing.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra added that the Spiritual Council of the Lavra will meet in the near future, which will analyze this situation and decide who should be given what penance and what punishment. 

The SBU and the police are studying all the details of the incident.

The Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko, in turn, noted that the consequences and further actions of the Ministry will depend on the results of the investigation.

We will remind, as evidenced by the results of the KMIS survey, the 

number of supporters of the OCU and atheists increased

in Ukraine during the war .

Read also 

  • The Orthodox Church of Ukraine created its monastery in the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

  • ISW explained why Russia uses religious ideas against Ukraine

  • Metropolitan Epiphany explained the trickery of the UOC MP regarding "independence" from the "killer" Cyril of Moscow

  • A priest was detained in Russia: he called the Russian army an aggressor who "destroys the neighboring people"