This website has consistently upheld the place of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry as it has been challenged by the new structure created by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2018 without any pan-Orthodox consensus. This same church and the entire nation of Ukraine are, as we are all too well aware, facing a military onslaught from Russian forces who follow the orders of President Putin. This assault is a violation of the Gospel of Christ, which tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. To return good for evil, whether that evil is real or imagined. As it is written in the Psalms, the fundamental prayer book of the Church: “With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.”
The Apostle Paul reminds us that “The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.” So it is our prayer that earthly peace would be restored both in Ukraine and between it and Russia, and that on this foundation many will be able to enter the greater peace that only Christ can bring, a “peace that passes all understanding.”
Let us all take heed and follow the words of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry:
Address
His Beatitude Onuphry, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine,
to the faithful and citizens of Ukraine,
Dear brothers and sisters! Faithful to our Ukrainian Orthodox Church!
As the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I address you and all citizens of Ukraine. A disaster has happened. Unfortunately, Russia has launched military operations against Ukraine, and at this fateful time I urge you not to panic, be courageous and to show love for your Motherland and for each other. I urge you, first of all, to intensify repentant prayer for Ukraine, for our army and our people, I ask you to forget mutual strife and misunderstandings and unite in love for God and our Motherland.
In this tragic time, we express our special love and support to our soldiers who stand guard and protect and defend our land and our people. May God bless and keep them!
Defending the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, we appeal to the President of Russia and ask him to immediately stop the fratricidal war. The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who out of envy killed his own brother. Such a war is not justified either by God or by people.
I call on everyone to common sense, which teaches us to solve our earthly problems in mutual dialogue and mutual understanding, and I sincerely hope that God will forgive us our sins and God’s peace will reign on our earth and throughout the world!
+ ONUPHRY,
Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine
Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Orthodox Synaxis 