His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy: The media prefer not to notice the scale of the UOC's contribution to the defense of the country

Officials at all levels hinder the ministry of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the media prefer not to notice the huge contribution of the UOC to the defense of the country and the scale of assistance the church provides to war victims. This was stated by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The archpastor noted that among the opponents of the Church there is a “misunderstanding of spiritual processes” related to the war.

The prayers of the UOC, according to the Primate, “day and night sound in all the monasteries of Ukraine, day and night the prayers of millions of Orthodox Ukrainians for peace, for the cessation of war are raised to the Throne of God. And what is happening in parallel with this? Temples are taken away, closed, agreements on the use of land plots, where hundreds of Orthodox monasteries, seminaries and academies, Sunday schools, charitable, missionary, educational centers have been revived and created. All of this, with the easy hand of officials at various levels, is prohibited, difficult conditions are created for their existence, obstacles in serving Christ and the people of God”.

His Beatitude noted that the media prefer not to notice the huge contribution of the UOC to the defense of the country and the scale of assistance that the Church provides to those affected by the war.

“The political situation and the war have touched the hearts of millions of Orthodox of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and thousands of soldiers began to defend the Fatherland. The Church continuously in all dioceses provides great assistance to people affected by the war, and the volunteer movement in all dioceses of our Church, the financial and technical means transferred regularly to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the inhabitants of the affected towns and villages, has the character of all-Ukrainian coverage. Unfortunately, this movement is not covered at all in the state media,” the Primate said.

He expressed his conviction that the Church will withstand the current difficult period, as it has already happened more than once, when they tried to destroy it.

“In the Church we are really inside a miracle. By all human plans and calculations the Church was not to be. Many times the persecutors of the faith of Christ have foretold that the Church would disappear from the face of the earth. According to their calculations, it should have disappeared without being born, after the crucifixion of the Lord, should have been strangled in the embryo during the persecution of the Apostles. Huge trials fell on the Church of God in the last twentieth atheistic century, it seemed that she should have perished…. But she is alive now, and will live until the end of the age, and the gates of hell, according to the Savior of the world, will not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18)”, – stressed His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy.