Paval Sevyarynets: Metropolitan Pavel discredits Orthodox Christians

The request of the metropolitan to vote for Lukashenka can cause loss of believers.

It has been stated by the co-chairman of the organizing committee for creation of the party “Belarusian Christian Democracy” (BCD) Paval Sevyarynets, commenting on the demand of the metropolitan Pavel to vote for Lukashenka for his parishioners.

“I am really sad to hear such statements from Metropolitan Pavel. Frankly speaking, sometimes it is disappointing, and sometimes one feels ashamed for the Orthodox Church. I know that there are many people in the Orthodox Church who understand the dishonesty and unlawfulness of the today’s regime. It is possible that such words would not be heard by us in case we had a Belarusian Metropolitan. And there had been worthy candidates among Belarusian bishops,” the politician is convinced.

The former political prisoner believes that such statements could cause disappointment and loss of believers, so it would be bad for the church.

“Any secular person and even a priest can express one’s opinion on some political problem from time to time, but when a metropolitan gives an opinion, words should be well-balanced indeed. And the statements on Ukrainian topics and about Lukashenka confuse and disappoint us, which does harm to the church,” Paval Sevyarynets stressed.

We remind that yesterday during a visit of the Belarusian leader to St. Spirit Cathedral in Minsk, Metropolitan Pavel told Lukashenka how he urges his parishioners to vote for him.