Primate: UOC ready to organize a procession to “Azovstal” to save people
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry suggested holding a prayer procession of UOC believers to save the civilians of Mariupol and help the wounded.
On April 21, 2022, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine appealed to save civilians and the wounded remaining in the besieged Mariupol, reports the UOC Information and Education Department.
“With deep sadness, I observe what is happening these days in the city of Mariupol. The feeling of heartfelt sorrow induces on the eve of the main Christian feast – the Holy Resurrection of Christ, to pay attention to the need to save those who were left in long-suffering Mariupol in a humanitarian disaster,” wrote the Primate of the UOC.
He recalled that a large number of civilians still remain in the city, including many children and the elderly, as well as wounded military personnel who require urgent medical care. His Beatitude stressed that the bodies of all the dead should be handed over to their families for proper burial.
“In this regard, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with the help of the episcopate, the clergy, monastics and believers, is ready to organize a prayer procession from the city of Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, to the “Azovstal” plant in the city of Mariupol to provide emergency assistance and withdraw civilians. Also, the procession could take out the wounded soldiers and pick up the bodies of the dead.
We appeal to all in authority and ask to ensure a ceasefire and provide a humanitarian corridor for the passage of the said prayer procession in the city of Mariupol and its environs in the period from Good Friday (April 22, 2022) to the Holy Resurrection of Christ (April 24, 2022),” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry’s statement says.
As earlier reported, Metropolitan Luke and the clergy accompanied a group of refugees to Zaporizhzhia.
