UOC Chancellor: For all the lies against the Church, it is growing

The number of parishioners in the churches of the UOC has increased. Photo: facebook.com/MitropolitAntoniy

With all the pressure and lies against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, there are many more people in our temples. Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the UOC, spoke about this in the film “UOC. From ‘Separatists In Lavras" To Incitement and Forgiveness”, prepared by the Shariy.net team.

Answering a journalist's question about what it is like to serve when you are regularly faced up with treason accusations and growing pressure, Metropolitan Anthony recalled the words of the Apostle Paul: it doesn't matter how others think of me, it is important how Christ thinks of me.

“Believers who live with deep faith in God go to church to communicate with God, to unite with Him – this is the essence of any believer,” noted the UOC Chancellor. “If a person comes to church for some other purpose, then he is the wrong place. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is focused on inner work – every person and his/her soul are important to us. We are called agents or something like that, but in recent years, for all this pressure and all this falsehood in our address, the parishioners have grown a lot. This is the case in both cities and villages."

He recalled that in almost all the parishes of the UOC, where churches were seized, new ones emerged, and "this is an interesting fact which no one talks about."

“For the Church, it is not the outer membrane that is important, but the human soul, the person himself. If a person comes to a temple for God's sake, and we are not an obstacle for a person, then we are fulfilling our role. You know, people would call us, ministers of the Church, differently, then there was certain reconsideration… We think that if the Lord gives the right life and the correct vision of history – objective, then everything will be said correctly even in our earthly history. Anyway, we do not live to care what they are going to say about us, we live in order to save the human soul. This is the destiny of every priest, bishop. And we hope that the Lord will take into account precisely this inner intention,” explained Metropolitan Anthony.

As reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Anthony recalled that until now none of the media has refuted their lies about weapons and separatists in the Sviatogorsk Lavra.

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