The commandments of Christ about love for one’s neighbor have been forgotten and trampled: every day we receive news of brutal beatings of innocent people, even those lying in hospital beds. Their only guilt is that they honestly fulfilled their duty to the homeland and served for the good of the people.

These horrific actions occur not only under the cover of night but also in broad daylight, with unprecedented audacity and cruelty, without trial and in violation of all rights and laws. This is happening in our days in almost all cities and villages of our country: in capitals and outskirts, such as Petrograd, Moscow, Irkutsk, Sevastopol, and others. What are the limits to these mockeries against the Church of Christ? How can we stop this onslaught of enemies?

We call upon all believers and devoted children of the Church to stand up for your holy Mother, who is currently insulted and oppressed.

The enemies of the Church seize power over it and its property with the help of weapons, while you oppose them with the strength of your faith and the voice of the people, which will stop the madmen and show that they have no right to call themselves defenders of the people's good and builders of a new life, as they act against the conscience of the people.

If it is necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we urge you, beloved children of the Church, to endure these sufferings with us with the words of the holy apostle: "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Rom. 8:35). And you, brothers archpastors and pastors, do not waste time in your spiritual ministry, with fervent zeal call your children to defend the trampled rights of the Orthodox Church, create spiritual unions and call upon them to voluntarily join the ranks of spiritual fighters who will oppose external force with the strength of their holy inspiration. We firmly believe that the enemies of the Church will be put to shame and scattered by the power of the cross of Christ, for the promise of the Divine Crusader is unchangeable: "I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).