Interview with the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Onufrii
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His Beatitude Onufriy: "This year the main prayers have been for peace. We have prayed as best as we could, asked God everywhere, in all the lands, in church worship and private prayers. I believe our attempts have been successful ...”
"Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onufriy on his visit to the native village of Vashkivtsi (Chernivtsi region) during a cross procession honoring "the holy memory of the righteous martyrs, Makovey brothers, shared his thoughts with the UOJ reporters about the first year since his appointment as Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Your Beatitude, in a few days it will have been a year since you became the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Try now to go back in time to recollect your feelings at that moment. What did you feel? What was the Church mood? What has changed this year?
Indeed, almost a year has passed since I, a sinner, was elected to obedience as Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The time was hard, and the feelings that I had in my soul were also difficult. Because it was war, no peace, blood was shed. And of course, the first thoughts were focused on what to do for the hostilities to cease so that people would stop killing each other. So this year has passed under such a motto as to pray God for peace in our land. I think we have achieved the desired to a certain extent: military activities have decreased, tension has gone down, but, unfortunately, there is still no complete peace. It is easier to burn a fire that to extinguish it. To put it out is much more complicated. We all understand it now. But we still cherish a hope that the hostilities will cease between people, the war will stop, human blood will not be shed any more and peace will reign in our land. Over the past year I have visited many different dioceses, about 20 of them, met parishioners there. The most wanted wish is for peace. I haven’t met a person who said that they wanted war. Especially mothers whose children serve in the conflict zone and especially those ones whose children are killed or died. I say some words that God put into my soul, but I see that these words are not enough to comfort them. A mother lost her son ... I have met a lot of such mothers, and once again I got convinced that people want peace, so that we peacefully solve all the problems that we encounter in everyday life.
What challenges that you have faced during the year did you manage to overcome and what challenges remain topical?
I can’t say that I have overcome something completely. It's hard to say because the fight with your own faults, with the enemies of human salvation is eternal. There are times when we have success, but there are times when temptations or the devil are on top. This year the main prayers have been for peace. We have prayed as best as we could, asked God everywhere, in all the lands, in church worship and private prayers. I believe our attempts have been successful. I think that God will hear us and help us to live in peace, harmony and love for one another.
During these difficult times, do you think the church has grown, matured or, otherwise, decreased?
In trials church strengthens. I can’t give exact numbers, we never figure out. I see that the number of people in church has increased. Although some people say that we lose people, but I see the opposite picture. We are sure to have improved in quality. This I can say with confidence as the prayer has become more sincere. In peace people have all comforts of life, a man feels relaxed. But when there is some temptation, trial, a man strains themselves and becomes spiritually stronger in the fight. I think that the church has qualitatively improved.
We as believers cannot but notice some continuing aggressive actions of certain circles against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It hurts to see it. Can you tell us how the church responds to this aggression, how we, common believers, should mobilize ourselves, what we should do to stop it?
I think we shouldn’t look at the aggression of individuals or groups of people, we should do our business. The attitude to our enemies, the enemies of the Church, according to the Lord, should be the following: "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who offend you." We do so: we love all – those who love us and those who hate us. We wish everybody good!
