Believers of the UOC are forbidden to pray at the holy spring in Gilcha

According to the head of the legal department of the Rivne diocese of the UOC, Archpriest Vasily Nachev, local authorities, including a local council member from the European Solidarity party, are trying to prohibit clergy and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from praying near the source of St. Nicholas in the village of Gilcha, Rivne region.

“An attempt to forbid us to pray here (at the source – Ed.) is nothing but spiritual separatism, because the source is located on the land of the territorial community, so everyone can pray here,” Father Vasily noted. “The attempts of a local MP from European Solidarity and several of its supporters, who say that we cannot pray here, just look ridiculous.”

The priest also said that recently fewer people visit the source, since the OCU community is holding its “blessing of water” there and believers do not want to go there.

“Recently, there are fewer people here. People say that today the OCU community “serves” here, “blesses the water”, and they do not want to come here for water. This is wrong, the water here is still blessed. The rector of the local church, Archimandrite Herman, performs divine services, every Thursday he serves prayers with the blessing of water, so you can take water here and receive healing from it,” the archpriest emphasized.