His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Mr. Porphyry sent a letter of strong and unreserved support to His Beatitude the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, Mr. Onufrije on the occasion of the adoption of the Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations by the Supreme Rada in Kyiv.

In the Synod letter, the Holy Patriarch Porphyry emphasizes that he has not only an obligation, but also a strong personal need to make his brother and co-celebrant, Blessed Mr. Onufrija, inform that the local Church of Saint Sava received with deep indignation the news that the Parliament in Kyiv adopted a law that foresees the ban on the work of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Since not so long ago, during the Second World War, the Serbian Orthodox Church was banned and persecuted, in your case we feel the truth of the sacred words of the Apostle Paul that if one limb suffers, all limbs suffer with it; and if one member is celebrated, all the members rejoice with him (1 Cor 12, 26), Patriarch Porfirius reminded and emphasized that the work and mission of our Church was then prevented by an openly totalitarian, criminal regime of a puppet fascist creation, while, to make the tragedy even greater, today the sister Church in Ukraine is persecuted by a declaratively democratic government made up of its compatriots, which makes the situation difficult and incomparably more absurd.

With anxiety in our hearts, dear brother in Christ, we feel that, on the example of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a new totalitarianism is being introduced, in which even the maxim of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostle Emperor Constantine, which is one of the basic generally accepted social principles by which we live, is not valid, which reads: Let everyone believe as his heart desires, said Patriarch Porphyry and concluded that it is clear that the downgrading of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to a banned organization additionally legitimizes the already permanent persecution, arrest and harassment of its clerical hierarchy and faithful people, enables further seizure of its property or, more precisely, repeats the Golgotha the scenario also crucifies her on a new cross of suffering, and Ukrainian society as a whole returns to the time of the Roman persecutions of the Church of Christ.

Our prayers, our hopes, our thoughts, but also our sincere wishes that those in charge turn away from their foolishness to the knowledge of justice and truth, as well as that peace, brotherly love and harmony reign again in your homeland, are constantly raised before the face of the Lord from every from the heart, always loyal to you, of the Serbian people, whose unreserved support and help you should never doubt. With the hope for the most favorable and just solution to the painful situation and with a prayer to the greatest Sufferer in all the worlds, our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you and the fullness of the beloved Ukrainian Orthodox Church the strength, faith, love and patience to carry your cross until the resurrection dawn, we send Fraternal greetings and the love of our hearts, he emphasized at the end of the letter to his brother in Christ and co-servant, the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, Mr. Onufrije, Serbian Patriarch Mr. Porphyry.

Source: SPC