UOC hierach on UOC “ban”: We pray for those who spit in our faces

Archbishop Pymen. Photo: a screenshot of YouTube channel ‘Archbishop Pymen’

On April 10, 2023, Archbishop Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh commented on the decision of the Rivne Regional Council to "ban" the Church.

According to the archbishop, this "ban" means for our Church that "Holy Week, the most important week of the whole year, has begun," and "we are ascending to Calvary together with Christ".

"We have learned nothing new here, it's all been there. Today the mothers of our fallen fighters were spitted in the face, today the son of the fighter we buried the day before yesterday was called an idiot, a monster," said Archbishop Pymen.

"What do we plan to do? Trust in God, pray, and first of all for all the deputies who spit in the face of mothers whose sons have died. We will pray for them because Christ taught us to do so. He said, what good is it if you love the one who loves you, you will love the one who does not love you," stressed the hierarch.

The hierarch believes that the law-governed state of Ukraine has been destroyed by such decisions and it must now be built from scratch.

"I am forced to state that the law, the truth of state governance is dead, it does not exist, it has been destroyed. We need to start from scratch to build a state based on the rule of law that wants to join the EU," he concluded.

As earlier reported, members of the Rivne City Council confiscated land plots under churches from the UOC.

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