"What could please the devil more than the cessation of prayer?" — Metropolitan Anthony on the persecution of the UOC

Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil (Pakanich) commented on the recent events surrounding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, emphasizing that for believers, the Church is, above all, the mystical Body of Christ, not a political or economic structure. According to him, current attempts to restrict the Church’s activities should not be viewed solely through a political lens. This was reported by the Orthodox Life (Pravlife) portal.

“Non-believers always see only politics or money behind every process related to the Church,” the hierarch noted.

The bishop cited a recent interview with a member of parliament who is actively campaigning against the UOC. While commenting on an anti-church law, the MP said:
“If a community wants to remain loyal to that Church, which is hostile to us, well, we’re not fascists — we are a state governed by the rule of law. Let them stay. We don’t touch private property. It’s just that services won’t be allowed there. But otherwise — they can store vegetables, trade, open a casino, I don’t know — that’s their business…”

According to Metropolitan Anthony, this politician “unwittingly reveals the goal of the dark spiritual forces acting through him: ‘services won’t be allowed there,’ and the rest doesn’t really matter.”

The hierarch emphasized that divine services belong to the spiritual realm and have nothing to do with politics, war, or economics. For believers, it is obvious that the greatest enemy of the Liturgy — the bloodless sacrifice of Christ — is the devil.

“We see how in churches taken away from the Church, there are now cooking shows, concerts, film screenings, amusements, and other events that often have nothing to do with a house of God and instead appear to be blasphemous acts of desecration,” the Metropolitan noted.

He stressed that “the cessation of prayer and the abomination of desolation in the holy place” is one of the devil’s most dreadful delights.

“The Lord is not to be mocked. The Church has always risen from the ruins after persecution, but the damage done to the souls of its persecutors is incredibly hard to atone for. May the Lord be merciful to us and bring all to repentance!” Metropolitan Anthony concluded.

It should also be recalled that former bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who joined the OCU in 2018, Oleksandr Drabinko, criticized a recent statement by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine regarding the UOC’s independence and self-governance. Drabinko called the Metropolitan’s words “wordplay,” claiming that nothing new had been said since 2022.