Ukrainian Holy Synod addresses persecution and war

Kiev, December 27, 2023

Photo: news.church.ua Photo: news.church.ua     

The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held its last session of the year yesterday, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

The day began with the Divine Liturgy in the Church of All Saints at St. Panteleimon Monastery in Kiev

Among its decisions, the Synod approved the text of the service in honor of the Vladimir-Tithes Icon of the Mother of God, kept at the Nativity of the Theotokos-Tithes Monastery in Kiev, for liturgical use.

According to the Information-Education Department of the UOC, the hierarchs also addressed the “dubious” prosecution cases against several hierarchs of the Church:

In 2023, for the first time in the recent history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, there was a particular intensification of criminal prosecutions against the hierarchs, clergy, and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The trials of the Right Reverend Metropolitans Jonathan of Tulchin and Bratslav, Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, Theodosy of Cherkasy and Kanev, and Longin of Bancheny caused a significant resonance in both the Ukrainian and the international community. In all these cases, the grounds for criminal liability and the evidence used to justify the accusations are of a dubious nature.

And as regards the ongoing war, the Synod reports that 14 clerics of the UOC have died, another 20 have been injured, and 5 representatives of the Church are considered missing.

119 churches and prayer rooms have been destroyed and 329 churches have been damaged by shelling. 30 monasteries have also been destroyed or significantly damaged.

The Synod sums up:

Despite all the difficulties of the war, the persecution of hierarchs, clergy, and believers of our Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continues to steadily fulfill its saving mission, without departing from the doctrinal truths and Church canons, provide spiritual support to all who need it, and direct its efforts to providing social and humanitarian assistance to victims of the war and military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine.

The Synod also expressed its gratitude to the primates and hierarchs of the Local Orthodox Churches (many of whom sent letters of support throughout the year) for their prayers and support of the canonical UOC, its primate Met. Onuphry, and all the hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and faithful of the Church.

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12/27/2023

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We do not choose the time we are to be born in this world, but we do choose how we will spend our time in the world. We choose how to leave this world—either holding on to Christ’s hand, or hooked onto the devil’s tail.

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