Priest: No one but the UOC wants religious peace in Ukraine

The rector of the Holy Cross Cathedral (UOC) in Uzhhorod, Archpriest Dimitry Sidor, said that no one in Ukraine suggests religious peace except the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He said this at a sermon on St Michael's Memorial Day, published on the cathedral's Facebook page.

According to him, the UOC asks Ukrainians to stick together, while everyone else calls for a religious war.

"Everyone is demanding their own – inventing a new religion, demanding to ban our Church, calling for a religious war. How to ban 5-6 million people? How to ban temples where there are 12 thousand priests, 5 thousand monks, 17 thousand clerics and millions of believers? On the contrary, we say that in this difficult time, let's find out later who is holier, let's stick together," the priest said.

The rector of the cathedral also urged the faithful of the UOC to unite and not to yield to slander, which today is attributed to the Church.

"We are officially persecuted, beaten, attributed terrible things that in our dreams we would not dream of. But the slanderers have so much power that we cannot punish them with today's court. We try to evade slander, we try to avoid it, to forgive it, to endure it," he says. "God says, 'You, Christians, are a light to this world. Don't be surprised. Your persecutors are either illiterate people or those who don't realise what they are doing by breaking laws. But you are the light, and you must shine your light to the people with good deeds, good faith and patience."