Source: Basilica News Agency
November 22, 2017
On Tuesday, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Archbishop Justin of Canterbury issued a joint statement on persecuted Christians.
The meeting between Patriarch Kirill and the Primate of the Anglican Community, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, took place at St Daniel Monastery in Moscow, on November 21.
Joint Declaration by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ (Romans 8. 35-37)
- We, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan, thank God for the opportunity to meet in Moscow in order to with one voice before the entire world bear witness to our brothers and sisters who are persecuted for faith in Christ. We cannot remain indifferent to the afflictions of our sisters and brothers, for ‘if one member suffers, all suffer together with it: if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.’ (1 Corinthians 12. 26).
- In many countries of the Middle East and Africa, there is persecution of Christians, manifested in mass killings, the barbaric destruction of churches, the desecration of holy sites and the expulsion of millions of people from their homes. Our hearts are pained by the mass exodus of the Christian population from those places where the Good News began to be spread throughout the world. Christians also suffer more subtle forms of discrimination where life is made so difficult that it is easier for them to leave their ancient homeland than to stay.
- At the present moment, the war has taken away tens of thousands of lives and left millions of people homeless and without the means for existence.
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