Met. Athanasios to UOC believers: Remain faithful to Metropolitan Onuphry
The Cypriot hierarch expressed his love and support for the persecuted UOC communities and exhorted believers to be loyal to the canonical Church led by Met. Onuphry.
The hierarch of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, called on the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to remember that persecution and trials will sooner or later be overcome, calling on "our brothers to remain faithful to your Church and to the canonical Metropolitan of Ukraine Onuphry."
The bishop gave such a comment to the UOJ correspondent after watching the film "Faithful: Hymn of Love", which tells about the fate of the believers of the villages of Butyn and Kinakhivtsi, who lost two churches that belonged to them after the raider attack by the adherents of the OCU, but did not lose love for each other and their offenders.
"With great sadness and grief in our hearts, we are witnessing the persecution and struggle, waged by our Orthodox Christian brothers in Ukraine, who are defending their true faith and their allegiance to the canonical Church of Metropolitan Onuphry," said Metropolitan Athanasios. “We express our sympathy, our love and our prayers, and we exhort our brothers to remain faithful to our Church and to the canonical Metropolitan of Ukraine, His Beatitude Onuphry. We hope that the grace of the Lord will support, strengthen, and console them. They must be sure that one day the persecutions and trials will be overcome, and the truth of Christ and the canonicity of the Church will shine forth, according to the Gospel of the Lord.”
The bishop wished all believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church God's blessing and strengthening in the Holy Spirit.
We will remind, earlier Metropolitan Athanasios, among other hierarchs of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, opposed the liturgical commemoration of Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko by Archbishop Chrysostomos.
