METROPOLITAN EPIFANY: R.P.Ts. IS LAST OUTPOST OF RUSSIA IN UKRAINE
Russia is trying to destroy Ukraine. However thanks to God's help and the support of such friends as Poland, we will defeat the aggressor.
This was declared by the primate of the PTsU [Orthodox Church of Ukraine], Epifany, during a meeting with a deputy marshal of the Sejm of the republic of Poland, Malgorzata Maria Gosiewska.
"Russia and its satellites in Ukraine are striving to destroy the pro-Ukrainian spirit and therefore the autocephalous Ukrainian church is very much hindering them. The RPTs [Russian Orthodox Church] is effectively their last 'outpost' here. However I am sure that thanks to God's help and the support of such friends as Poland, we will defeat the aggressor. We are hoping that NATO will take steps to meet Ukraine and facilitate us in the just defense of our territorial integrity," the primate noted.
Metropolitan Epifany discussed with the right honorable guest the inter-confessional relationships in Ukraine, the issue of the continuing Russian hybrid aggression and the use of the Moscow patriarchate in it, the defense of believers' rights in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donbass and Crimea, and the process of the release of detained persons and humanitarian activity.
In addition, in the context of the discussion of the Istanbul Convention, the primate of the PTsU noted that the church fully supports combating domestic violence and it even is taking practical steps for this, creating applicable havens—shelters. However, it cannot, under pressure of this world, accept what God has forbidden. "If we were to do that, then we would cease to be the church. Therefore we will never take that route," the first hierarch emphasized. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 June 2021)
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