His Holiness Serbian Patriarch kyr Porfirije sent a letter of strong and unconditional support to His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine kyr Onufriy, regarding the adoption of the Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activity of Religious Organizations by the Verkhovna Rada in Kiev.
In the Synodal letter, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije emphasizes that he not only has an obligation but also a strong personal need to inform his brother and concelebrant, His Beatitude kyr Onufriy, that the news of the Ukrainian Parliament’s adoption of a law that foresees the banning of the work of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been received with deep indignation in the local Church of Saint Sava.
Patriarch Porfirije recalled that in the not-so-distant past, during World War II, the Serbian Orthodox Church was banned and persecuted, and pointed out that in this situation we empirically feel the truth of the sacred words of the Apostle Paul that if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:26). He also emphasized that at that time the work and mission of our Church were hindered by an openly totalitarian, criminal regime of a puppet fascist creation; while today, to make the tragedy even greater, a sister Church in Ukraine is being persecuted by a declaratively democratic government, composed of her own compatriots, making the situation more difficult and incomparably more absurd.
With anxiety in our hearts, dear brother in Christ, we feel that in the example of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a new totalitarianism is being introduced, in which not even the maxim of Saint Constantine the Great, the Equal-to-the-Apostles, being one of the basic universally accepted social principles by which we live, is respected: Let each one believe as their heart desires – Patriarch Porfirije added and concluded that – it is clear that the degrading of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to a forbidden organization further legalizes the already enduring persecution, the arresting, and harassment of her sacred Hierarchy and faithful people, enabling the further seizure of her property, or, more accurately, repeating the golgothan scenario and crucifies her on a new cross of suffering, and returns Ukrainian society as a whole to the time of the Roman persecutions of Christ’s Church.
Our prayers, our hopes, our thoughts, and our sincere wishes that the authorities will turn away from their madness to the knowledge of justice and truth in order that peace, brotherly love and harmony may once again reign in Your homeland, are unceasingly lifted up before the face of the Lord from every heart of the Serbian people, always loyal to You, in whose unwavering support and aid You should never doubt. With hope for the most favorable and just resolution of the agonizing situation, and with prayers to the greatest Sufferer in all worlds, our Lord Jesus Christ, to grant You and the entire pleroma of the beloved Ukrainian Orthodox Church strength, faith, love, and patience to bear your cross until the dawn of resurrection, we extend to You fraternal greetings and the love of our hearts – Serbian Patriarch Porfirije emphasized at the end of his letter to his brother and concelebrant in Christ Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine kyr Onufriy.
