We pray for military personnel because it is Christian to do so, - UOC hierarch

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia and Melitopol said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been constantly interacting with military personnel since 2014, when the ATO was declared in Ukraine. The hierarch noted that the clergy of the UOC pray for the living and conduct funeral services for the fallen soldiers, as this is the duty of a Christian. This was reported by the press service of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the UOC.

«Since 2014, no representatives of religious organizations have visited the cemetery where soldiers killed in the ATO began to be buried, until we ourselves began to do so in order to serve memorial services. Because this is Christian. All services for military personnel, including memorial services, are performed free of charge. Military personnel and their relatives constantly come in and ask us to pray for them and their comrades. But there is only one condition: the person must be baptized in the canonical Orthodox Church. If a person is baptized in another denomination, those who wish to pray for them can do so privately. The question of outrage may immediately arise: why is this so? Let me give you an example. If you go to a bank, can you get money there if you are not a customer of the bank? Why are we being asked to violate the canons? We have prayed, we continue to pray, and we will pray,» — said Metropolitan Luke.

We would like to remind you that we previously reported that in the village of Smolyary in the Volyn region, supporters and representatives of the OCU provoked a conflict with the local religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in honor of St. Job of Pochaiv. The reason for this was once again the funeral service for a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who died while performing his military duty on the front line. Representatives of the OCU and relatives of the deceased demanded that the priest of the UOC provide a church for the funeral service, but were refused, which provoked a scandal.