APPEAL OF METROPOLITAN LUKA IN CONNECTION WITH AN ATTEMPT TO ADOPT ANTI-CHURCH LAWS

Our Mother Church is in danger! Once again, the enemy of the human race, through its slanderers, is trying with all possible forces to destroy Her soul-saving work! By their actions, some “servants of the people” are trying to plunge not only our Church, but also our Motherland – Ukraine, into the abyss of an inter-confessional war. Unfortunately, from the history of countries where such wars have arisen, we know that they are much worse than non-religious wars .

Today, the servants of the devil, shouting about decommunization, have gone further than their teachers – “neo-democrats”. Using their methods of pressure on the Church, they propose to adopt new bills aimed at destroying the prayer life of our Mother Church, the church administrative system established for centuries.

On May 18, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine plans to consider bills directed against our Mother Church. Thus, draft law No. 4128 proposes to determine belonging to a religious community on the basis of “self-identification”. In other words, anyone who once entered your temple can declare himself a permanent parishioner, and with their own kind, they can easily, legally, expel you from your temple. Such actions are raider capture. Who among you will agree that a person be expelled from the temple, which he went to, as they say, all his life?

Draft Law No. 4511, in turn, introduces a special status for Churches whose governing bodies are located in a country recognized by the Rada as an aggressor country, and gives the right not to the clergy, but to representatives of civil authorities – often unbelievers and people hostile to our Church – to appoint clergy . Are you ready for your priest to be fired because some official doesn’t like him?

I ask you to remember the words of Christ: “What do you ask in My Name…”. Our Mother Church is a Divine-human organism headed by Christ Himself, we have great power to turn to God Himself through prayer.

In this regard, starting from May 14 to May 18 inclusive, I ask you and bless you:

1) make a fast and take upon yourself a prayer feat, in the form of reading, by agreement, the prayer rule below;

2) Dean Fathers and Rectors to organize the collection of signatures of parishioners under the Bishops’ Appeal; send the lists as soon as possible to the receptions of people’s deputies of Ukraine in whose districts your parishes are located.

My dear flock, brothers and sisters, I ask you not to lose heart, because Christ told us “do not be afraid, little flock, I am with you until the end of time”, we are not two or three, we are thousands – we will testify to our Orthodox Faith! I believe that the Queen of Heaven, covering our land with her Omophorion, the holy new martyrs, whose blood stained the Zaporizhia land, will never leave us!

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