UOC Сhancellor: We want politicians to listen to the voice of Church

Metropolitan Anthony at the Sviatogorsk Lavra. Photo: facebook.com/Metropolitan Anthony

We would very much like politicians to listen to the voice of the Church, which is the voice of the people. Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said this at the International Forum "People of Peace", which opened on September 21, 2020, at the Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra. The forum is broadcast by the "1Kozak" channel.

“One saint said that in human society there is one most terrible sin – the sin of war, when a person ceases to see before him a friend, a neighbour, a fellowman, a fellow citizen, to see just a person as an image and likeness of God,” the hierarch noted. “In war, people look at each other through the sight of a weapon. Unfortunately, we are going through this page of our history, and we really want it to be a page of history and the past. We have what we have, and we cannot go away from it, but we must think about the future."

Vladyka said that the day before he had met at the Sviatogorsk Lavra a lot of young children who turned out to be internally displaced people living here.

“Many of them have grown up in the Lavra, some were even born here. Many of them do not know home comfort. Yes, the Church has given shelter to people, but we understand what an important role the parental home, the warmth of the father and mother, play in our life. And when children, unfortunately, distinguish which bullet is whistling from which weapon, it is very scary. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to do everything so that their future is peaceful so that they no longer know the experiences they have in their lives."

Metropolitan Anthony stressed that we must hurry because war plays a very bad role – people get used to war and even death, the war is sacralised and blood divides us more and more.

But not everything depends on the Church, which from the very beginning has been saying that war is bad, you cannot fight and divide the people, he noted.

“We would very much like the politicians to listen to the voice of the Church,” said the UOC Chancellor. "The voice of the Church is the voice of the people. Perhaps, we principally approached the idea of gathering without politicians, although we understand that this issue cannot be resolved without politicians."

The hierarch added that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church keeps doing everything possible so that people on both sides do not live in aggression, achieve inner peace and be able to return to a normal spiritual state through the Church Sacraments.

“Today's forum is one of the stages of what the Church has been doing since the beginning of the conflict. And each of us – a priest, a hierarch, and ordinary laymen – will do everything that depends on us. Because we are patriots of our Motherland and we understand that the conflict can be overcome only when we ourselves achieve inner peace. And this is exactly what the Church is doing, this is its main purpose – to bring people to Christ, who is peace and grace for every person,” resumed Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary.

As reported, on September 21, 2020, as part of the peacemaking initiatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to end the armed conflict and restore peaceful life in the Donbass, the International Forum "People of Peace" was opened at the Sviatogorsk Lavra. Metropolitan Anthony, the UOC Chancellor, read out the Primate's Address to the forum participants.

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