Church leaders discuss the Bill on opening the Parliament’s session with Our Father prayer
Representatives of Ukrainian churches commented on the initiative of a number of MPs, offering to read the prayer Our Father immediately after the opening of a plenary session of the Parliament of Ukraine, Religion in Ukraine has reported with reference to Ukranews.com and Rrochurch.info.
Administrator of the UOC (MP), Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych) of Boryspil and Brovary said: "The desire of MPs to pray indicates the awareness of the fact that without hope of God it is impossible to get out of the situation. But we live in a state that declares equal attitude to religions, therefore, immediately the question arises of what should be done by non-Christian MPs at the moment. In addition, we must remember the words of Christ: “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”(Matt. 7:21). Prayer is not a magic spell that will ensure problem-solving. It will look strange if having prayed, MPs will draft the laws that are contrary to gospel principles, aimed at the impoverishment of the people, or worse, are adopted on agreement, and on a paid basis. In this connection, while appreciating this initiative positively, we emphasize that the prayer of the people's deputies must be supported by the Christian attitude towards their duties and behavior.”
Archbishop Yevstraty (Zorya), the head of the Information Department of the Kyiv Patriarchate, also notes that there are non-Christians among the MPs. “Prayer is a calling and duty of every believer, the prayer Our Father is common to all Christians - Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants. But among the deputies of Ukraine, not all are Christians and not all are believers, so they are unlikely to pray during this time,” said the archbishop.
The pastor of Evangelical Christians “New Life,” Doctor of Theology Anatoly Kalyuzhny considers that it is not an obstacle to the initiative: “Even if reading prayers will be formal, it will have a positive impact on parliamentarians. I believe that their work will change for the better, while now it is a concentration of corruption and crime. As for conversations about the fact that our state is secular and not everyone consider themselves to be religious people: first, more than 90% of the population of the country consider themselves Christians, and secondly, nobody binds the MPs to pray together with everyone. Someone will pray from a pure heart, and someone will be silent, but the Word of God will sound in the walls of the parliament.”
Also, an opinion was voiced by the president of Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine Ukraine Valery Antoniuk: “I support this initiative. If our MPs turned in prayer to God, Ukraine would receive a great blessing and could solve many problems that currently exist. This prayer can help the people's deputies understand that they are all responsible to the Lord for the decisions that they make. I believe that the negative attitude towards the initiative shows the level of spiritual responsibility of people, they are not ready to turn to God in critical circumstances in which our country has found itself. But I think there is no other better way out of the situation for parliamentarians and the whole society.”
As reported, Amnesty International criticized Bill 6722, which offers to read the prayer “Our Father” after the opening of plenary sessions of the parliament.
