Metropolitan of Limassol: I urge Ukrainian brothers to be faithful to UOC
Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol declared that he admires the dignity of His Beatitude Onuphry at a difficult time for him and his Church.
The representative of the Cyprus Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, called on all Orthodox Ukraine to support Metropolitan Onuphry and his Church. He stated this in his interview, which was published on the website of the Information and Education Department of the UOC.
In particular, the hierarch said that "Metropolitan of Kiev Onuphry is a canonical head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
In addition, he asked "all Orthodox brothers and sisters in Ukraine to be under the omophorion of Metropolitan Onuphry, to support their Church, to remain faithful to the Orthodox faith."
Metropolitan Athanasios noted that the UOC believers "are living through great temptations". Moreover, His Eminence asked the UOC believers for forgiveness because, in his opinion, “each of us to some extent caused these temptations, but we pray that the Lord will help us overcome these temptations.”
He particularly emphasized that he admires “how Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev is withstanding this crisis: with great calmness, great dignity, brevity, with just a few statements and with a lot of prayers”.
At the same time, Metropolitan Athanasios said that he did not want to blame and upset Patriarch Bartholomew. But, according to him, “we also respect and love Patriarch Kirill of Moscow”.
Vladyka recalled that "we are all brothers, we are all one body, we are all Orthodox Christians." Metropolitan Athanasios believes that what has happened “is a temptation” and in order to overcome it, “prayers must be offered and it will pass.” It is the point that makes the root of the matter," said the Metropolitan.
He is confident that “we will not be winners if we shoot each other. We will become winners if we humbly offer prayers and ask God for His holy will to be accomplished.”
The Metropolitan of Limassol believes that the “Ukrainian issue” can be resolved only in the spirit of love: “we turn every day to Christ: ‘Thy will be done’. This is what we must seek, and this must become the goal of our life. All the more such an approach should be manifested at the level of the Primates of the Churches.”
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Metropolitan Athanasios considers the thesis “a separate church to a separate state” unacceptable.
