Greek hegumen Dosifey on the persecution of the UOC: "Christ will take everything in His hands"

The abbot of the Agia Skepi monastery in Greece, hegumen Dosifey, commented on the situation around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, urging believers to pray harder in the face of persecution. According to him, the main response to the trials should be faith and repentance, and the Lord Himself will take the situation under His control. This is reported by the SPJ.

In a conversation with the Greek service of the SPJ, Hegumen Dositheus emphasized that the first response of a Christian to the repressive initiatives of the authorities should be prayer. «Prayer should be the first. And Christ will never abandon His Church — it belongs to Him. Whoever remains steadfast in faith, Christ Himself will take over the situation. The main thing is repentance and return to our roots,» he said.

According to the elder, the Lord Himself will purify His Church from trials and attacks if the faithful keep the faith and do not give in to despair. «Keep in Orthodoxy and you will see what will happen. All other powers will disappear as a cloud dissipates in a light breeze. Christ will not abandon His Church,» he added.

The hegumen also reminded that the sins of individual clerics cannot be a reason for accusations against the Church itself, which remains holy. «The Church does not sin because there are some impious priests and bishops. Do not forget that even among the twelve apostles one was unholy. But this does not mean that Christ sinned,» he noted, concluding that people sin, not the Church, which is Christ, His saints, apostles and martyrs.

Recall, earlier we reported that the Holy Council of Bishops of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, held on October 27 under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Savva of Warsaw and All Poland, came up with an important initiative. After reviewing the current situation in world Orthodoxy, the hierarchs called for the convening of an Pan-Orthodox Council to overcome the existing divisions.