ROCOR compares Law 8371 to persecution of the Church by Bolsheviks

Members of the ROCOR's Holy Synod. Photo: UOJ

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) expressed its profound empathy to the faithful after the adoption of a law that in fact outlaws the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), imploring them to hold fast in “standing for the truth”.

Archpriest Serafim Gan, Chancellor of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR and Secretary of the First Hierarch, drew a parallel with the 1920’s in the USSR, when the canonical Church likewise endured all forms of persecutions from the regime and the schismatic reformers, known as the “Living Church”.

“One must only remember St Tikhon (Bellavin, 1865-1925), Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who was rejected by the ‘Living Church’ and its foreign ecclesiastical activists. What happened to them later? The memory of the ‘Living Church’ and its supporters has faded into obscurity, while St Tikhon, venerated by all Orthodox Christians, prays for us along with the saints,” noted the ROCOR representative.

He noted that in case of present Ukrainian actions, “history is repeating itself,” and that “the persecutors and their cohorts learned nothing from their predecessors”.

“The memory and example of St Tikhon rebuke them, and those being persecuted for their firmness in Divine truth will be strengthened,” he concluded.

The Chancellor of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR also said that he deeply sympathises with the Orthodox people “who faithfully follow His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.

As reported by the UOJ, an expert conducted a constitutional and legal analysis of the law “on the UOC ban”.

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