Vladimir-Volynsky, Ukraine, November 19, 2019
Photo: єпархія.укр
The hierarchs of the Polish Orthodox Church have continually expressed and shown their support for the much-suffering canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
Photo: єпархія.укр
Most recently, His Grace Bishop Paweł (Tokajuk) of Hajnówka concelebrated at a service in the Holy Dormition Cathedral in the Vladimir-Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to show support for the Ukrainian Church and to witness to the Polish Church’s unity with it, reports the press service of the Ukrainian diocese.
The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Sunday, November 17, with His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Volyn and the cathedral clergy.
Photo: єпархія.укр
At the end of the service, Bp. Paweł addressed the gathered faithful with words of support and gratitude, stressing the need to pray to find salvation.
Bp. Paweł was also present in Kiev on June 25 for the celebration of Met. Onuphry’s name’s day, where he expressed the Polish Church’s conviction that there is only one grace-filled Church in Ukraine, and that the Polish Church’s stance has not changed.
Photo: єпархія.укр
He also compared the greatly-beloved Met. Onuphry to the early martyrs for Christ: “Even going to their execution, the martyrs did not renounce Christ. And Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and all Ukraine protects the faith, is faithful to Christ to the end.”
The Bishops’ Council of the Polish Church, consisting of every hierarch of the Church, reaffirmed its stance in favor of the holy canons of Orthodoxy at its session on October 29, just days after the news that Archbishop Ieronymos of the Greek Church has officially recognized the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and Epiphany Dumenko as its primate.
