Kiev, April 14, 2023
holyarchangelcandles.com
According to the Exarch of the Holy Sepulchre in Cyprus, the Kiev Caves Lavra and the parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have turned into Golgotha today.
His Eminence Metropolitan Timothy of Bostra of the Jerusalem Patriarchate sent Paschal greetings to the abbot of the Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod, who is forced to greet the Resurrection of the Lord outside his monastic home, under house arrest.
“Holy Week has come early this year in the long-suffering Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is with great sorrow that we learn that every village and every parish in Ukraine, which remains steadfast in traditional piety and resists the imposed newly created church orders, has been turned into a Golgotha,” the hierarch writes, as reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
The same imagery was invoked in an earlier statement by His Grace Bishop Sergije of Bihać and Petrovac of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Those who remain faithful to Orthodoxy have become martyrs, he writes. President Zelensky and his government resemble the Sanhedrin, which handed Christ over to crucifixion, he emphasizes.
The mistreatment of Met. Pavel as a criminal is disturbing and cause for indignation, the Metropolitan writes, wishing patience and spiritual and bodily strength to the Lavra abbot.
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