KIRILL CALLS FOR SUPPORT "OF SUFFERING BRETHREN" IN AFRICA AND UKRAINE
Religiina Pravda, 22 July 2021
Patriarch of Moscow Kirill urged "strengthening solidarity in support of suffering brethren in the Near East, in Northern Africa, in Kosovo and Metohija, in Ukraine, and also wherever Christians are being subjected to persecution." He talked about this in his appeal to participants in the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy on Crete.
Kirill emphasized that "the unity of world Orthodoxy is now under serious threat."
"Today special efforts are demanded of us in order to find new approaches for overcoming divisions. It is necessary, in particular, to strengthen solidarity in support of suffering brethren in the Near East, in Northern Africa, in Kosovo and Metohija, in Ukraine, and also wherever Christians are being subjected to persecution and where the Orthodox church is struggling to maintain its historic, spiritual, and cultural heritage," the Moscow patriarch noted.
He said that "today the integrity of the world Orthodox family is suffering great damage because of division provoked by the anticanonical actions directed toward the legalization of schism in Ukraine."
"To the present time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being subjected to discrimination. Its churches are still being seized, and attempts are being made to restrict its rights, including on the legislative level, all the way to trying to forcibly deprive it of its own name. Division among Orthodox as a result of church events in Ukraine have unfortunately exceeded its boundaries and have spread within several local Orthodox churches. I am deeply convinced that a way out of this crisis is possible only on the basis of a return to the canonical tradition of the Orthodox church through openness to dialogue," Kirill declared. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 July 2021)
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