Patriarch Kirill urges prayer for peace in “Russian lands” and calls those that have strived against the unity of Rus’ and the Russian Church “evil forces”

Source: Interfax

Moscow, February 28, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in his Sunday sermon after Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior said that he prayed for peace in the Russian land that includes “Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia.”

“May the Lord preserve the Russian land. When I say “Russian”, I use the ancient expression from “A Tale of Bygone Years” – “Wherefrom has the Russian land come”, the land which now includes Russia and Ukraine and Belarus and other tribes and peoples,” he said addressing the parishioners.

He also called on all believers of the Russian Orthodox Church to pray in church and at home for restoring peace there and not to allow “that a terrible line stained with the blood of our brothers should be drawn between Russia and Ukraine”.

“God forbid that the present political situation in fraternal Ukraine so close to us should be aimed at making the evil forces that have always strived against the unity of Rus’ and the Russian Church, gain the upper hand,” the patriarch continued.

According to him, the pledge of such fraternity is the united Orthodox Church, which is represented by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, headed by Metropolitan Onufry. “May the Lord preserve our Church in unity. May the Lord protect from fratricidal battle the peoples comprising the one space of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said.

He believes that “it must not be allowed to give the dark and hostile external forces an occasion to laugh at us; we should do everything to preserve peace between our peoples while protecting our common historical Motherland against every outside action that can destroy this unity”.

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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill calls on the faithful to pray for peace and unity of the Church – The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Relations