Archbishop Michael of Prague: Ukrainian authorities are going to crucify the Church of Christ

DECR Communication Service, 30.03.2023.

The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia published on March 29 an address of Archbishop Michael of Prague, who expressed on behalf of his diocese a protest against the actions of the Ukrainian authorities towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The text of the address is available at the UOC External Relations Department.

In his address, Archbishop Michael stated, ‘Fateful events are taking place in Ukraine as the Ukrainian authorities are going to crucify the Church of Christ’.

‘The faithful and clergy of the Orthodox Diocese of Prague are looking at it with concern and sorrow in their hearts. For us the Ukrainian people are a fraternal people. That is why the beginning of the war echoed with pain in the soul of every believer of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands, and our diocese has immediate joined the actions to give spiritual and material aid to refugees’, the hierarch stressed.

‘While so many disasters has fallen to the lot of the Ukrainian people, for the Ukrainian authorities it was not enough, and they have launched a crusade against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has culminated in the banishment of the monks from the Kiev Lavra of the Caves, the letter reads.

Archbishop Michael assured the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that ‘the Orthodox Diocese of Prague is lifting up prayers’ and expressed a protest ‘against the Ukrainian authorities’ violations of the rights of the clergy and faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church’.

Earlier, statements against the persecutions of the canonical Church in Ukraine and on the developments in the Kiev Lavra of the Caves were made by Patriarch John X of Antioch, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada, Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral, the former Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) now retired in the Russian Church Outside of Russia; hierarchs of the Churches of Jerusalem, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Concern for the situation of the Kiev Lavra of the Caves was also expressed by the World Council of Churches and the Bose Community.

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Archbishop Michael of Prague: Ukrainian authorities are going to crucify the Church of Christ

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