Only God knows: Russian Church tells if annexed lands will remain with UOC

Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Adviser to Patriarch Kirill, said that only God knows whether the UOC will remain in the annexed lands, interfax-religion.ru reported.

"The future is known to God, who directs the ways of His Church. I am not a prophet to proclaim the forthcoming," Archpriest Nikolai Balashov said and added that in his opinion, now "it is necessary to focus primarily on issues not so much administrative as practical in the annexed territories."

The Adviser to Patriarch Kirill added that it is now necessary to help people also to restore churches destroyed in the fighting. 

"One way or another, we are one Church and are called, as the apostle Paul says, to bear one another's burdens," he concluded.

As the UOJ reported earlier, a special commission of the Russian Orthodox Church will take charge of the fate of parishes in the annexed territories.

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