“Do not leave the Church, do not rip the Robe of Christ. Remember that Christ in his Prayer at Gethsemane, the Hierarchical Prayer, begged His Father, saying: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17: 21). The Lord wants unity of the Church. The dissenters, the schismatics, who find errors in the teaching of the Church, are removed from it and believe they will find salvation in their heretical organizations. But do you know what the great Saints said about people who tear the Tunic of Christ? Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said that people who leave the Church and do not have communion with it even if they become Martyrs, even with their blood, will not be cleansed of their sin because this grievous sin of dividing the Church cannot even be cleaned with shedding of blood. And the Holy Martyr Ignatius the God-bearer said that he who causes schism in the Church will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
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