Met. Longin: The state wants to take away our most precious thing – Church

Metropolitan Longin (Zhar). Photo: the press service of the Bancheny Monastery

On December 4, 2022, on the feast of the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos, Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny called on the faithful not to pay attention to the actions of the authorities and security forces, but simply “pray, love your neighbours and serve the Lord”.

Vladyka noted that the Church has always been persecuted, and nothing new is happening.

“I call you to prayer and love. The prayer of Orthodox Ukraine will defeat the visible and invisible enemy. Do not fight people, the devil does it, the confrontation between God and Satan has been going on for many thousands of years, but Christ always wins,” Metropolitan Longin said.

The hierarch also stated that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has a thousand-year history, and the newly created “churches” are the churches of the Antichrist.

His Eminence reminded the faithful that the Lord loves everyone.

“The whole earth prays “Our Father!”, He alone is our Heavenly Father, one Mother of God, and we are God’s people. <...> They will not kill us all because Ukraine is all Orthodox; if they kill us, our country will not exist. Thanks to our state for wanting to take away the most precious thing from us – the Church and faith, but nothing will come of it! <…> No one can defeat God and the Church of God,” Vladyka Longin added.

The Metropolitan of Bancheny urged the faithful to pray for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

“Many of you call him ‘our father’. He is a true spiritual father who prays and worries for our Ukraine,” the hierarch noted.

As earlier reported, Archbishop Pimen (Voyat) urged UOC believers not to fear anyone but God and to preserve the purity of faith.

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