Primate of Albanian Church expresses support for Metropolitan Jonathan
His Beatitude Anastasios called the verdict on the UOC hierarch "absurd persecution".
On 11 August 2023, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, through His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, sent a letter to Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn and Bratslav to express his support in the current difficult trials, reports news.church.ua.
"With the deepest sorrow we follow the painful trials of Your beloved Eminence and Your chosen flock," the letter reads. “We participate in Your sufferings and, to extend of our capabilities, we share where appropriate our testimony about the atrocities against the pious Orthodox holy clergy, the devout people, as well as the renowned sacred places in Ukraine."
The Primate of the Albanian Orthodox Church assured of his fraternal prayers ‘that God strengthen You to “commend yourself as minister of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments” (2 Cor. 6:4-5)’.
‘Our thoughts and supplications unceasingly are with You, so that, aligning Yourself with the chorus of the new martyrs, You also may face the present absurd persecution by Orthodox “by the Holy Spirit, by the word of truth, by the power of God… as unknown yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened, and yet not killed (2 Cor. 6:6-9),” noted the Primate of the Albanian Church.
On 7 August 2023, the Vinnytsia City Court passed a guilty verdict against Metropolitan Jonathan. He was sentenced to five years of imprisonment based on fabricated charges.
As previously reported, the prosecution will demand an extension of the imprisonment term for Metropolitan Jonathan.
