The Orthodox Church of Ukraine shares with the Patriarchate of Alexandria its pain and prays to God to overcome as soon as possible the new temptation that the arrogant sons of the north brought to Africa, sowing splits.
This was emphasized by Metropolitan Epifaniy, Primate of the OCU, in his speech at a doxology in Alexandria.
“it is with a special spiritual sense of awe that we step on the earth of Egypt – the earth, blessed with the feet of the Son of God and His Holy Mother as they were hiding from the evil plots of Herod here as fugitives. The memory of this is extremely moving to our hearts now that millions of Ukrainians, our brothers and sisters, have become fugitives, fleeing from the deadly plots of a new Herod. They are forced to escape from the war, from the genocide that this evil ruler brought to our peaceful land.
That is why, in these sacred biblical sites, it is with a special feeling that we bring our prayer to God with a request to bring the victory of truth and peace for Ukraine and with a request for a trial for the modern-time Herod and all his evil servants to be launched as soon as possible.
We know, Your Beatitude, that you personally sympathize with the Ukrainian people in their suffering because our people and our country have a special place in your loving heart. The city of Odesa, which had the blessing to preserve the holy relics of Patriarch Grigory, a hierarch, whose name and suffering are inscribed in gold letters in the history of Hellenism. Although it has been in danger from the beginning of great aggression, I believe that also thanks to your holy prayers, the Lord protects it to this day. And the blessed day will come when Your Beatitude will be able to once again step on its land and bring prayers in a temple that is native to you, for which we pray and on what we will continue to work. (…)
In the ancient custom, we arrived on a peaceful visit to once again reaffirm our unity in God, as the bodies of a church in which there are many members, but the only head is our Lord Jesus Christ around whom we rally, affirming our unity with a common Eucharist.
In its two-year history, the Patriarchal Apostolic See, led by Your Beatitude, was subjected to many assaults and sufferings. Persecutors have more than once tried to destroy the Church of Christ on the lands of Africa. The waves of heresies who sought to sink the ship of the church repeatedly attacked the truth. And now, those re-emerged whom the Lord called thieves and robbers, because they do not enter the church through the door but crawl as criminals, set to steal, kill, and destroy. Your Beatitude, we share with you this pain and pray to God to overcome as soon as possible this new temptation that the arrogant sons of the North brought to Africa, sowing splits. As the youngest church in the diptych, but the one that is ancient in history and founded in the Apostolic time, we fully support all the decisions and actions of the Alexandria Patriarchate aimed at affirming the canonical order.”
