Several hundred Orthodox Christians took part in a procession in Vilnius on Saturday, calling to preserve the unity of the church and to end the “fratricidal war” in Ukraine.
The march included "prayers for the unity of the Church and for the cessation of the fratricidal war in Ukraine", according to the Chancellery of the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese.
This comes amid a conflict within the church over the Moscow Patriarchate’s support for the war in Ukraine.
The demonstration was organised under the invitation of the head of the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese, Metropolitan Innokenty. He has recently dismissed three priests, Vitalijus Mockus, Gintaras Jurgis Sungaila and Vitalis Dauparas, for criticising the invasion of Ukraine and the Russian Orthodox Church's support for the war.
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Some Lithuanian Orthodox priests have decided to appeal to the patriarch of Constantinople to allow them to switch jurisdictions.
Metropolitan Innokenty says that the Orthodox Church in Lithuania is going through a difficult time and calls for "the support of all the faithful".
The Lithuanian Orthodox Church, one of Lithuania’s nine traditional religious communities, is a metropolitanate within the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia.
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