Bishop of Czech and Slovak Church concelebrates with hierarchs of canonical Ukrainian Church in Kiev Caves

In a letter to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia dated October 11, His Beatitude Metropolitan Rostislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia expressed his unwavering position in regard to the ongoing gross interference of the state authorities in the internal life of the Church in Ukraine, noting that the Orthodox world recognizes only the Ukrainian Church headed by Met. Onuphry.

Met. Rostislav again expressed his prayerful support in November during a meeting at his residence in Prešov with Bps. Viktor and Juraj, saying: “We are very worried about our fraternal Ukrainian Orthodox Church. With you, we prayerfully support and will continue to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. We do not say ‘your’ Ukrainian people, we say ‘our’ people, because we are united in Christ and belong to the one, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

His Beatitude also warned against the interference of politicians in Church affairs in a meeting in May with former Ukrainian Presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, when he told them that “any participation of state officials in Church matters is unacceptable in a democratic society.”

His Eminence Archbishop Michael of Prague and the Czech Lands met with His Eminence Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa in late November, stressing that Constantinople’s present course of action in Ukraine is impermissible and that all the Orthodox must therefore stand together: “We greatly sympathize with you and we tell the people that we are with you—the Czechs, and the Slovaks, and the Transcarpathians, and even the Orthodox Germans should be like one family. Your joy is our joy; your woes are our woes. We should support one another both in word and in prayer.”

Source: Orthochristian.com