UOC Primate offers condolences over Beirut tragedy

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onufry. Photo: news.church.ua

On August 6, 2020, the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, expressed his condolences to the Antiochian Orthodox Church in the wake of the tragedy in Beirut. This was reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The Primate sent a letter to Patriarch John X of Antioch and All East with words of sympathy and support on behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In his letter to the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, in the canonical territory of which the tragedy took place, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry expressed condolences and noted, "We invoke mercy of the All-Blessed God so that He may rest all the dead in His abodes, grant healing to all those who have suffered and console their relatives and friends."

“We sympathize with you, because, according to the Apostle Paul, ‘if one part suffers, every part suffers with it’ (1 Cor. 12:26), therefore this is pain for all of us,” the letter says.

As reported by the UOJ, on August 4 in the evening, in the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, a large explosion occurred, as a result of which dozens of people were killed and thousands were injured. The blast wave was so powerful that it knocked out windows in houses across the city. The death toll as a result of powerful explosions in the port area of Beirut (Lebanon) amounted to 78 people, almost 4 thousand people were injured. Lebanese Interior Minister Mohamed Fehmi said the explosion could be caused by a warehouse with a huge amount of explosive – ammonium nitrate.

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