Met Arseniy in сourt: “We wave won – we are with God and a clear conscience”

Metropolitan Arseniy. Photo: Sviatohirsk Lavra

Following the ruling of the Sobornyi District Court to place him in custody once again, Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk delivered an emotional address to the faithful, calling what had happened not a defeat, but a victory.

“My words come not without tears. But these were not tears of weakness – they were tears of love for you and of gratitude,” the hierarch began. “You know what the Lord said: ‘My joy I give to you, and no one will take this joy from you.’”

He urged the faithful not to view the court’s decision as a loss. “Do not think that today we have been defeated. No. Why not defeated? Because we have remained with God and with a clear conscience. That is our greatest victory. Our conscience is pure. You see? And I would not say that God has not helped us – we have kept a clean conscience, we have stayed with God. Yes! His help is with us, He is with us. That means we remain for the sake of His work,” said Metropolitan Arseniy.

The hierarch thanked the faithful for their support and noted the powerful wave of prayer surrounding him. “During these one and a half years, God has given me the strength to endure all this because of the millions of prayers offered for me,” he said. “It is by your prayers, by the strength of your spirit and by your love that we, the hierarchs, live. And the Lord Himself said: where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”

He also pointed out that throughout all the court hearings not a single person appeared to speak against him. “During these days, not one person – not even one who might have been paid – stood outside the court with a poster against me. On the contrary, thousands of people express their support for me online. People are praying for me all over the world,” the archpastor emphasized.

Turning to his flock, Metropolitan Arseniy said: “You are my native Ukraine, you are my beloved flock that has not abandoned me – and I will never abandon you. The Church into which my grandmother once led me by the hand – there is no better one. Hold fast to it. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers endured the same.”

The archpastor quoted St. Basil the Great: “O Lord, if You make me dwell in Paradise and save my soul – glory to Your mercy and love for mankind. But, O Lord, if You condemn me to the depths of hell – then also, O Lord, glory to Your justice.” “Divine justice... God knows what we truly need,” the hierarch added.

Speaking about faith and trust in God, Metropolitan Arseniy recalled the words of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia: “We do not choose the time in which we are born. We do not choose the people among whom we are born. We do not choose the state in which we are born. We were all born in this time, among this people, in this land. This is the time for us to be human, not inhuman.”

As reported earlier, on November 3 the Sobornyi District Court of Dnipro ordered that Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk be held in the pre-trial detention center for 38 days, until December 10, 2025, despite his critical health condition and the willingness of ten members of parliament to take him on surety.

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