Tashkent, Uzbekistan, March 22, 2019
Photo: wikipedia.org
Meeting in the spiritual and administrative center of the Tashkent Diocese under the chairmanship of His Eminence Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and All Uzbekistan on March 19, the Synod of the Central Asian Metropolitan District crafted a letter of support to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine during this period of persecution due to the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s non-canonical invasion of Ukrainian Church territory.
The letter reads in full:
Your Beatitude!
Beloved in the Lord Vladyka Metropolitan Onuphry!
With deep regret we receive the news about the life of the faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The history of the many persecutions against the Church of Christ and the words of the holy Apostle Paul are involuntarily recalled: We were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears (2 Cor. 7:5).
However, the history of the victory of the Church of Christ over all its persecutors, together with the courageous steadfastness of the Orthodox people and clergy of Ukraine inspire the hope that these persecutions will be overcome by firmness of faith, fervent prayer, and the loving heart of the Orthodox pastors and faithful.
The days of the great and saving fast help us all in prayer. We join in the prayer of the fraternal Ukrainian Church, sharing with all our hearts the pain and sorrow of the attempts to sever the blessed unity of the Church. Here, in the countries of Central Asia, the apostolic reminder that we, being many, are one body in Christ (Rom. 12:5) is felt especially vividly. Unity with the Mother Church becomes all the more valuable and important.
It is all the more necessary now for You, Your Beatitude, as the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, when there are attempts to draw the Orthodox people of Ukraine into the soul-destroying schism by force, including physical, which means to deprive them of their salvation and eternal life. The Righteous St. John of Kronstadt exclaims: “Our salvation is in the Church, as in the ark of Noah, and nowhere else. If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Mt. 18:17). We are the Church, the Body of Christ, and He, Christ, is the Savior of the Body; We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. 5:30). The Holy Spirit is the helmsman of the reasonable ship, the Church. Only in the Church, as in Noah’s ark, can you be saved.”
We prayerfully wish for all the clergy and people of the much-suffering canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church to preserve the spirit of the Lord … the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Is. 11:2). For Christ the Savior Himself encourages us: In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). The prayers and empathy of all the Orthodox faithful of Central Asia are with you in these trying days.
Participating in the Synod session were the temporary administrator of the Patriarchal deanery in Turkmenistan His Eminence Archbishop Theophylact of Pyatigorsk and Cherkesk, His Grace Bishop Pitirim of Dushanbe and Tajikistan, and His Grace Bishop Daniel of Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan.
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