By Kostas Onisenko
The Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Mitrofan (Yurchuk), reposed in the Lord.
He was the head of the Department of the External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the Metropolitan of Lugansk, which remains occupied by paramilitaries and the Russian army in recent years.
According to an official announcement of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Metropolitan reposed in the Lord yesterday, June 18, at the age of 59.
“Following the communication we had in 2007-2009 and the meetings at the official inter-religious events, I believe that despite the rivalries the hierarch who fell asleep in the Lord could be one of those who would stand in the way of building the unified local Church of Ukraine,” commented today in a post on social media the representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Archbishop Evstratiy (Zoria).
“Undoubtedly many of those who share the same views as me can find several reasons for criticism (editor’s note: Mitrofan). The Metropolitan remained at the Moscow Patriarchate, he was the Metropolitan of occupied Lugansk…
At the same time, he never had close relations with the occupiers (editor’s note: the terrorists of “people’s republics”), like many other hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate in Crimea and Donbas did,” said among others the Archbishop.