MOSCOW, Jan 7 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' named pitiful attempts to destroy the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and on Christmas night he called on the faithful to pray for Ukrainian fellow believers who were being expelled from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
«Let's pray for our brothers and sisters. We believe that someday these diabolical temptations will recede, and as time passes, many will remember with a smile the miserable attempts to destroy the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine,» the Patriarch said in a televised address to believers before the Christmas liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
He urged to pray for brothers and sisters on Ukrainian soil, for the country, its authorities and army, for relatives and friends, and to hope that «by the power and grace of God» the truth will win.
«I wish everyone to experience this Christmas night in a special way, to feel God's presence, to pray with all my heart for their loved ones, for themselves, for our Motherland, for those who are suffering today, for our brothers in Ukraine, who are today being expelled from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, which for centuries has been the guardian of true, undistorted Orthodoxy,» the patriarch concluded.