Employees of the press service of the Vilna-Lithuanian diocese told journalists that the Church, being a Lithuanian religious association, remains morally, spiritually and financially independent. All decisions are made in Lithuania, and the connection with the Moscow Patriarchate is exclusively canonical.
“Our parishes, as well as the diocese as a whole, are doing a great job of providing comprehensive assistance to refugees, both material and spiritual. The overwhelming majority of refugees from Ukraine of the Orthodox faith who are in our country prefer to attend services in our churches, which are conducted in Church Slavonic. For those of them who want to pray in their native language, regular services are held in Ukrainian,” the message says.
The Vilna-Lithuanian diocese reminded that Patriarch Kirill is not commemorated at these services, so that the faithful of other Local Churches “could concentrate on prayer.”
“This practice has been introduced a long time ago so as not to create additional obstacles for people who fundamentally disagree with the statements of Patriarch Kirill. The same applies to regular services in Lithuanian, Belarusian, Georgian, Greek and English. Also, once a week in the Cathedral of the Assumption, without commemoration of Patriarch Kirill, a service is performed in Church Slavonic, ”the press service said in a statement.
“The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Lithuania, Metropolitan Innokenty, publicly expressed his fundamental disagreement with the statements of Patriarch Kirill. His position was supported by thousands of laity and the clergy almost in its entirety. All this in no way prevents them from remaining in the bosom of the Church. Former clerics of the Vilna-Lithuanian diocese were deprived of their priesthood not for their anti-war position, but for committing a number of serious church crimes – such as violating the priestly oath and perjury, conspiring against their bishop and fellow clergymen, destroying the church world, schismatic activities, etc. d. From the foregoing, one gets the impression that in government circles there is a lack of comprehensive and objective information about the affairs of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania. This could be corrected by a constructive dialogue, to which the hierarchy of the Vilnius-Lithuanian diocese has been calling on the authorities since the beginning of the war in Ukraine,” the press service notes.
