The Russian Church is making every effort so that the forces of evil do not destroy the unity of the Orthodox Churches. His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, spoke about the situation in world Orthodoxy, which developed after some Local Churches recognized the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, reported Patriarchia.ru.
“Undoubtedly the Church experiences both suffering and sorrow in every era. The Lord has not deprived us of sorrow as well. Firstly, it relates to what is happening in the world Orthodox environment. It is astonishing how our Orthodox brothers chose the path of recognizing the schismatics under the influence of external political factors. These schismatics have not been canonically ordained. In other words, they are in fact laymen who call themselves clergymen! However, it is especially dangerous and sad that the schismatics receive support not only from marginal groups, as it happened before, but also from canonical Orthodox Churches,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“No one knows yet what this whole situation will lead to. Certainly, we pray and work so that the forces of evil do not destroy the unity of the Orthodox Churches, so that the forces of good and evil do not get combined in a certain amorphous mass, where it is no longer possible to understand what is good and what is evil, what is truth and what is false, what is canonical and what is the violation of canons. In other words, you and I have entered a very difficult era, and whether getting through all of these trials will be successful for us will largely depend on the internal state of our Church. The stronger our unity — both in solving the problems of internal development and in dialogue with world Orthodoxy — the more successful our actions will be. We have to carefully consider and comprehend the processes that are taking place today in world Orthodoxy, and I hope that in the near future the Council of Bishops will clearly define our position in relation to schisms and to those of our brothers who, unfortunately, support these schisms, ” said the Patriarch.
“God willing, these trials which came our way: our current generation of bishops, the clergy and all the faithful, will not destroy our unity and will not weaken our strength, so that we could steadily move along the path showed to us by our pious ancestors and preserve the purity of Orthodoxy and the canonical order not yielding to any tricks that flow from the outside as well as sometimes from the inside of the Church,” concluded His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill.
