ZHIROVICHI, 25 June (BelTA) – There are attempts to break Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Belarus, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with the clergy at the Holy Dormition Stavropegic Monastery in Zhirovichi on 25 June, BelTA has learned.
“Unfortunately, we are going through turbulent times. I will not go into details. Let me just remind you that against the background of this pandemic, as it was called, they tried to rock the boat here and, as you can see today, to break us. And not even subjugate. A possibility of disappearing as a state and a nation was looming,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“First, the blitzkrieg that failed, then making overtures to people (flowers and other idolatry). Unfortunately, churches were also part of it. There was an attempt to get almost all Catholic churches involved, and many succumbed to these calls. There was certain hemming and hawing in the Orthodox Church, however the Metropolitan and the Orthodox Church have coped with it by now. It was worth it, you should not lower your guard,” the president said.
After these failed attempts to break the country, external forces turned to a powerful smear campaign and economic strangulation, the head of state said. “The last stage remains, which is intervention,” he said.
“In this global confrontation there are certain things that determine the existence of the Belarusian nation. One of them (we have been observing it recently, and we have discussed this topic with our patriarch) is an attempt to break Eastern Orthodoxy in Belarus,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The opponents of the Belarusian state are following the tried-and-true path, wishing to declare the autocephaly of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. “Letters were sent to Constantinople, to our patriarch (he told me about this), and even here we already see this. I instructed Natalya Ivanovna [Kochanova] to coordinate communication between the state, the country's leadership and the metropolitan, so that we, God forbid, I will put it in simple terms, we will not miss this moment. We must do everything to preserve our main asset – inter-faith peace in Belarus,” the president stressed.
