UOC rep: This isn’t a Church where old women are beaten and temples seized
Metropolitan Longin (Zhar). Photo: a screenshot of the YouTube channel of the Bancheny Monastery
On February 6, 2023, Metropolitan Longin (Zhar) of Banchy Monastery, Vicar of the Eparchy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna, in his sermon said that in the true Church they do not beat up old women, who pray for everybody, and do not seize churches.
A video of the sermon was published on the YouTube channel of the Bancheny Monastery.
"In our canonical Church, we don't dance, we don't sing, we don't walk, we don't jump, we don't take crowbars and break open temple doors, we don't beat up those old women who have prayed for us sinners all their lives, we don't do that in the Church. That's not God's church, that's Satan's church. Is there God in that church or not? God was crucified for us," said the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan Longin urged to pray for Ukraine and protect the canonical Church.
"God has no nations and languages - all are His children; the Lord is one for all children, as well as Mother of God. Pray for our canonical Orthodox Church. The faith will always be with us. The Church is the Lord's, not a political Church, here the Lord God Himself rests. God is with us; God is Love and we have no right to divide people into left and right. People have started their own churches, but the Lord's Church is God's Church. We serve here not in Ukrainian or Russian, but in Church Slavonic, which is the spiritual language God gave us," the abbot of the Bancheny Monastery added.
As earlier reported, the UOC hierarch said that there would be persecution in all Churches whose heads would not sell out to the authorities.
Read also
Priest charged with desertion freed after faithful raise bail
Archpriest Vitaliy Agafonov, a cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has been released after bail was posted with funds raised by the faithful.
UOC clergy and laity from several eparchies donate blood for wounded soldiers
Clergy and Orthodox youth of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church donated blood for wounded military personnel.
UOC faithful in Kozelshchansk hold procession with icon of the Mother of God
Pilgrims and clergy of the Poltava Eparchy prayed at the Kozelshchansk Monastery and took part in a procession around the church with the wonderworking icon.
Hearing in Metropolitan Theodosiy’s сase postponed after “victim” no-show
A scheduled hearing at the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Court in the case against the ruling bishop of the Cherkasy Eparchy was postponed after OCU chaplain Nazariy Zasansky failed to appear.
Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi: The time has come to build the Third Temple
The spiritual leader of Ukraine’s Jewish community commented on Tucker Carlson’s claims about the religious motives behind the war in the Middle East.
US bars removal of children from parents who reject gender transition
U.S. authorities have affirmed the right of families to raise their children in accordance with their religious convictions and biblical understanding of sex.