Met Luke: Court proceedings were held over our entire Orthodox community

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol. Photo: Zaporizhzhia Eparchy

"Beloved in the Lord fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters! I sincerely thank all of you for the prayers offered by each of you during the morally challenging time, both for me personally, as it is clearly seen, for all of us," wrote Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol in his Telegram channel.

The bishop emphasized that "we are one family in Christ."

"I thank the Lord for entrusting me with such clergy and flock, ready to defend their ruling bishop, not tolerating slander against him and understanding that the initiated legal proceedings, based on unreliability and false testimonies of slanderers, are intended to discredit not me personally, but our Church," the message says.

According to the hierarch, "the court proceedings were not so much against me, Metropolitan Luke, but against our entire Orthodox community – the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy."

The hierarch of the UOC asked "not to relax", as "we will need a lot of strength to remain faithful to our Mother Church."

"I ask you to strengthen yourselves in faith, not to cease praying, to perform it from the depth of your heart, not to succumb to provocations, and not to believe them!" he urged.

As the UOJ reported, on May 7, Metropolitan Luke was placed under house arrest by the court. The bishop was sentenced to night home arrest until July 1 and wearing an electronic bracelet. On May 1, the Security Service of Ukraine served the suspicion to Metropolitan Luke of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is reported that Metropolitan Luke "provoked and incited religious hatred in Ukraine". Later, the bishop talked about the details of the search at his place.

Read also

Metropolitan Theodosiy: We must defend our churches and show that we exist

The UOC hierarch is confident that the time will come when the country returns to the rule of law, and those now persecuting the Church will be held accountable.