Patriarch Porfirije calls on all Churches to condemn persecution against UOC
The Primate of the Serbian Church said that the closure of the Lavra would affect the Ukrainian identity.
On March 29, 2023, the Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, called on the Local Orthodox Churches to condemn the persecution against the UOC.
The Patriarch stated that “the entire Christian world knows very well that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the only canonical Church recognized by all other Churches and the largest religious organization in Ukraine in terms of the number of priests, monks and believers.”
He emphasized that if the authorities succeed in expelling the monks from the Lavra, this will affect the identity of the Ukrainian people: “Even if this evil comes true, it is clear to everyone that memory, history and all traces of primordial Orthodoxy will disappear in Ukraine in order to radically change, i.e. disfigure its identity, which the Church laboriously and painstakingly built over the centuries from the time of St. Prince Vladimir up to the present day.”
“We expect that all Churches and religious communities, as well as all institutions for which peace, justice and order matter, will condemn the mentioned threat to religious freedoms and violation of property rights,” wrote Patriarch Porfirije.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Patriarch Porfirije condemned state terror against the UOC.
