Representatives of the UOC-MP, OCU, UGCC, Jewish and Muslim communities of Odesa ask God to bring peace to the city and Ukraine
The video message is posted on the official municipal website of Odesa.
Archpriest Pavlo Poleshchuk, dean of the churches of the First Odesa District, UOC-MP:
In the city of Odesa and the Odesa region, all nations and nationalities have always got along peacefully. There has always been peace among many faiths. We sometimes have different doctrines, but the desire for peace, to live a good-neighborly and honest life has always been in Odesa. And today our prayers are for the city of Odesa to be preserved and the peace that is dear to each of us to be unshakable here. In 1855, there was a similar situation when an enemy fleet approached the city. And Odesa united in prayer to God for peace. The city was preserved. Today, with the blessing of Metropolitan Agafangel, prayer is performed around the clock near the Kaspersky Icon of the Mother of God. The purpose of this prayer is to preserve peace in Odesa and make the city whole and unharmed.
Father Teodor Orobets, Secretary of the Odessa Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine:
Free people do not need liberation and release. Odesa is a free-loving city, like the whole of Ukraine, which lives in peace with all its neighbors. Churches and confessions that exist in Ukraine, in particular in Odesa, have been showing their love for many years and adhere to the Christian teaching to love, respect each other and help each other. The Russian World that Russia brings is not peace, it is evil that destroys our cities, villages, and kills our people. We pray to God that this war will end, that it will not reach Odesa, which is still peaceful today. We ask God to stop all those who have the idea to continue this war. We pray to God that peace will reign in Ukraine.
Abraham Wolff, chief rabbi of Odesa and southern Ukraine:
The Jewish community of Odesa serves as an example for many Jewish communities around the world. I often meet with my fellow rabbis. And they all envy how freely the community of Odesa lives. I am proud to live in a city where I can speak Russian, and everyone understands and helps me. These are the most loyal cities and countries for any nationality, where you can work and develop freely. I pray to the Almighty to send peace to our land so that we can live in peace and quiet.
Fr. Oleksandr Smerechinsky, director of the Naval Apostolate of the UGCC, chief chaplain of the Naval Forces in Odesa:
The city of Odesa is a big family. In this family, we are different, but we are one. We value everything that makes us a family. We don't need to be released from anything. We only need to be left alone and allowed to develop our multi-religious, multi-ethnic, but united family, part of the Ukrainian land, the Ukrainian state, looking to the future. Don't let us go. Go home.
Askar Olegovich Jasimov, deputy imam:
Dear residents of Odesa! We, the Muslims of Ukraine, wish that in our sunny city never a single hair falls from the head of a single person. Our prayers, our requests from the creator of everything to preserve our country – our beloved Ukraine, because we grew up here. Our country fed us, clothed us, and taught us. All Muslims of Ukraine ask God to keep our country in peace. We are all united in the fight against evil, and evil has no nationality. Glory To Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!