In Milcha village the UOC community prayed for peace between believers near the saved Cross (VIDEO)

On June 8, the Day of Pascha Leavetaking, in Milcha village of Rivne region there took place a Cross Procession to the Cross which was saved by the faithful from demolition in the Soviet time. The congregation prayed for resolving an interdenominational conflict in the village. It is reported by the UOJ correspondent.    

Over 30 years on the Day of Pascha Leavetaking the believers from Milcha village go on a pilgrimage to the Blossoming Mountain. This year was not an exception, though praying was special this time: the church of the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which belongs to the congregation under the right of ownership, had been seized.   

“Our community was split under the authority of the village council chairman. Our congregation appealed to court, we won all the cases, yet we are made to have our worships in a village lodging currently. We’ve come here to offer prayers to Godmother for Her Merciful Son to put things right with time,” told protopriest Anatoliy Bogdanov, rural dean of Dubno UOC deanery.   

Believers from the entire district often come to the Cross to pray and ask for intercession – the fame of getting healed at the Cross got around long time ago already. Nadezhda Beliak, resident of Pridorozhnoye village, Dubno district, told one story. A granddaughter of her acquaintance was in the intensive care unit and the doctors said her disease was incurable. This woman prayed at the Cross and the girl recovered. “My son is now at the war in the East, so I come here myself to pray for my son to come back alive and fit,” the woman said.

The history of the healing Cross, which was jeopardized during church persecutions in the Soviet times, was recounted by the old local residents. According to them, in one village family children were born dead and the household head decided to install the Cross as a sacrifice to God. Milcha villager Fiodor Kovalchuk recalls that in 1963 the Cross was pulled out by the bulldozer and buried in a ditch. The Cross was found by the local tractor driver and buried in another place. Then he had a sign in his dream, as a result of which he together with his sons put the Cross on its current place.

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