UOC Primate blesses cross processions on Day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry. Photo: news.church.ua

In the Message to the flock on the occasion of Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of Great Lent, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, blessed to hold traditional processions and prayers in diocesan centres on the Day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. The text of the blessing was published by the UOC Information and Education Department.

“Despite numerous requests and appeals, the laws that were adopted by the previous government and which significantly limit the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have not been abolished in our state,” noted, in particular, the Primate of the UOC in his Message. “I would like the voice of our believers to be heard. Therefore, I bless on the first Sunday of Great Lent, when the Triumph of Orthodoxy is celebrated, to hold the traditional processions and prayer standings in all diocesan centres of our Church, taking into account the epidemic situation."

According to His Beatitude, “we must walk the streets of our native cities with a prayer on our lips and relics in our hands in order to testify both our loyalty to Holy Orthodoxy and our love for our native Ukrainian land – our earthly Motherland”.

“We are citizens of Ukraine, and we have the right, won by the blood of our ancestors, to profess the Orthodox faith as bequeathed by the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers,” stressed the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

We remind that the Message of His Beatitude Onuphry to the flock on the occasion of Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of Great Lent on March 14 will be read during the liturgy in all churches and monasteries of the UOC.

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