Met. Anthony: Easter will be in temples and in the heart of every man
The UOC hopes that the authorities will not close churches and is preparing for live broadcasts of services under quarantine.
Easter will be! Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, UOC Chancellor, said this in an interview with Klymenko Time.
According to him, the Church hopes and prays that temples will not be closed in Ukraine under quarantine.
“We are preparing for live broadcasts on some channels where people will have the opportunity to participate somehow,” said the hierarch. “And we will urge everyone not just to watch TV but to pray when the service will be held.” Without people, this is impossible because prayer is the breath of life.”
As for whether it will be possible to bring the Holy Fire to Ukraine this year, Vladyka noted that “we are working on a number of options for how to implement this”.
“We know that the Jerusalem Patriarchate said that the order of the descent of the Holy Fire will take place; at the moment, as I know, there is already permission from the authorities of Jerusalem,” he added. “Regarding the presence of representatives of the Local Churches, this is an open question, but there are other options. We hope that the true Holy Fire will be brought to Ukraine.”
Nevertheless, one must understand, Vladyka emphasized, that "in any situation, the Passover of Christ must touch the hearts of every person because God loved us so much that the only Begotten Son endured everything in this earthly life so that everyone would have hope for eternal life."
“And Easter will be! Easter will be in the temples, I hope, and Easter should be in the heart of every person. But in order for it to be in human hearts, we must get a little bit away from this panic, we must somehow limit ourselves even from unnecessary information,” Vladyka Anthony said.
He explained that due to the escalation of internal knowledge and helplessness to do something with this, a person falls into a panic, which is primarily a manifestation of lack of faith.
“If a person lives in a panic, then he/she does not trust God. But no matter what happens in our lives, everything happens out of the love of God. There is God's plan for man's salvation, and this is an axiom, a believing man knows this, and everything, in the end, will be for salvation. <...> Besides the fact that panic is a lack of faith, one simply has to understand that in a panic a person always acts inadequately, and it is impossible to make the right decision in a panic state. Therefore, Therefore, in order to have Christian sanity, we must pray, limit oneself – all the more, now is Lent – from everything superfluous, including excessive information,” said Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary.
As reported earlier, the UOC Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony, believes that in the current situation with the coronavirus, churches should be open.
