UGCC seeks the right to serve in Pochayiv Lavra, - Patriarch Sviatoslav
Head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk said it in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
"We are also talking about the Pochayiv Lavra. We don't want to make any property claims today. Nevertheless, we say that this is a historically significant spiritual center of our Church.
Researchers of Kyivan Christianity in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth say there was once an unwritten agreement between Orthodox Christians in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and Greek Catholics in the Pochayiv Lavra regarding the printing of liturgical books. What we published in Pochayiv was no longer published by the Orthodox in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Why? Because we exchanged those books.
The Pochayiv Lavra was a unique center of musical culture, spiritual, religious and international culture.
Obviously, when the Union was liquidated, the Russian tsars turned Pochayiv into a border outpost. And the Soviet authorities purposefully annexed the Pochayiv Lavra with its territory to the Ternopil region. It was done in order to destroy the Union in Halychyna.
Therefore, those who will decide who to give access to the opportunity to pray should take into account that the Pochayiv Lavra historically relates to our Church," he said.
The Primate of the UGCC stressed that so far, there have been no "specific steps" to change the status of the Pochayiv Lavra. He added that the UGCC does not question the state's ownership but wants to have access to this shrine.
