Bills № 4511 and № 4128 are aimed at the destruction of the Church, – Metropolitan Agaphangel of Odessa

Today, we have to strengthen our prayers, as on May 18 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is going to consider and possibly adopt antipopular, godless laws aimed at destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of Ukraine. This was stated by Metropolitan Agaphangel of Odessa and Izmail in his sermon on May 14 at the Holy Dormition Cathedral of Odessa, writes the website of the diocese.

"One of these laws says that the bishops are elected with the consent of the authorities, which is contrary to the law which states that the state is separated from the Church. Another bill will make it possible to seize our churches and monasteries by supposedly "parishioners", i.e. people who do not go to these churches, but only live in a particular locality. Unfortunately, this has happened more than once in Western Ukraine, where our parishioners were sometimes thrown out of the temples by force.

The adoption of these laws will contribute to the destruction of our Church. We are accused of being connected with "Moscow", with the "aggressor", but this is a lie: we have no links, except spiritual.

Our Church prays for peace in Ukraine, for the cessation of bloodshed in the Donbass, where a fratricidal war has already been going on for 3 years. We pray for those who died there, in the East, and we pray for those who died in Odessa. We pray that the long-awaited peace will reign in Ukraine.

Those who wish to implement these anti-church bills, haven’t built churches and monasteries, their business is to incite enmity and hatred, sow the seeds of discord, leading an inhuman policy of linguistic, religious and cultural affiliation. We always pray for our God-protected country, for the authorities, and we want the Lord to talk some sense into them.

We need to strengthen our prayer so that it will be daily, so that the Lord will give us patience and courage, for He is always with us, "Metropolitan Agaphangel explained in his archpastoral word.