Moscow, January 27, 2015
Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Synodal Information Department, has called for a thorough investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the fire in the Church of Holy Martyr Tryphon in the Kiev’s Desnyansky district.
V. Legoida notes that the Ministry for Extraordinary Situations of the Ukraine officially states that the cause of the fire was “arson by an unidentified person”.
Donetsk under fire. January 2015
“Frighteningly often we receive reports on shelling, arsons and destruction of churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the Synodal Information Department’s chairman noted.
The Moscow Patriarchate’s representative has also accentuated that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the Church of the majority of Ukrainians and is part and parcel of their national identity and their belonging to the family of the Orthodox nations of the world.
“Only those who have completely sunk in their lack of culture, hatred and cynicism can sink so low as to attack buildings of public worship,” he stressed.
“In this tragic time of divisions and suffering of the Ukrainian people, only those who hate their own people can resort to attacks on churches, provoking new confrontations,” he added.
“Once again I am calling to turn to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as an unifying force in Ukrainian society, a starting point towards achieving the long-awaited peace for which the faithful have been praying in the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and many other countries all over the world,” said Legoida in conclusion.
