{"id":73284,"date":"2021-12-01T15:54:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T13:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/df.news\/?p=73284"},"modified":"2021-12-01T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T13:57:15","slug":"we-thank-god-for-our-freedom-metropolitan-epifaniy-on-independence-act-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/2021\/12\/01\/we-thank-god-for-our-freedom-metropolitan-epifaniy-on-independence-act-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe thank God for our freedom\u201d – Metropolitan Epifaniy on Independence Act anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy<\/a>, recalled on his Facebook page how 30 years ago, on December 1, the Ukrainian nation confirmed the Act of Independence of Ukraine in an all-Ukrainian referendum and openly testified to the international community their decision to live in an independent country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver these 30 years, our family has strengthened, got back on its feet, learned the lessons of history, achieved a lot, and lived through many happy, as well as sad events. Remembering each year all the events and circumstances that allowed us to live as an independent family, we realize: although we are all very different, we are united in having no doubt on whether that decision was right. And now, as back then, we are unanimous in our desire to remain free, independent, and sovereign \u2013 despite all sorts of insidious attempts to pit us against each other again, separate us, divide us, before snatching what has been gained at such a high cost for us all,\u201d said Metropolitan Epifaniy.<\/p>\n

He noted that on December 1, 1991, there was no region, no settlement, where the idea of \u200b\u200bUkraine’s independence would not find support of the majority of citizens. In Crimea, 54.19% of residents voted for Ukrainian independence, in Sevastopol it was 57.07%, in Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa and Kharkiv regions, more than 80% of residents expressed their will to live in their own state. And in other regions, more than 95% of residents voted in favor of independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the enemies are trying to tear some of these regions away from our family by force and lies,\u201d said the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. \u201cThese are the adversaries who always want more, who are almost \u2018physically hurt\u2019 to see others live a happy life, who envy others because the \u2018neighbor\u2019s grass is always greener,\u2019 who got lost in the darkness of sin and forgot Christian commandments. Indeed, we have to defend ourselves today, but we know that God is on our side because He always stands for the truth. Therefore, we will definitely win as we don\u2019t seek what belongs to others, we defend what\u2019s ours. So a fair peace will prevail in Ukraine. For the Lord never gets embarrassed. ”<\/p>\n

“Recalling the popular will of December 1, 1991, let us thank the Lord for allowing this to happen back then. That He rewarded us with a great gift of freedom and independence \u2013 both the state and the church. And let us remember that it is our responsibility to preserve, affirm, multiply, and pass on this gift to future generations \u2013 who will once, like us today, remember us and, with God\u2019s help, thank us for everything!\u201d the OCU head concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, recalled on his Facebook page how 30 years ago, on December 1, the Ukrainian nation confirmed the Act of Independence of Ukraine in an all-Ukrainian referendum and openly testified to the international community their decision to live in an independent country. \u201cOver these 30 years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5151,5149],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-73284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogs-en","8":"category-opinions"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/263277384_465540901607103_1976411023423678229_n.jpg?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}