“To thrive, we must draw strength from our origins,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav in Halych
Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, presided over the solemn Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Halych.
The visit of His Beatitude Sviatoslav took place on the 1125th anniversary of the first record of the great city of Halych.
In his sermon, His Beatitude focused on the unity by which we are all connected: “Today I arrived in this glorious city of Halych, and I feel a special mission for us, our Church and the state: to celebrate the 1125th anniversary of the first record of Halych. We gathered in this magnificent Church of the Nativity of Christ, preserved for us since those times. Therefore, today it mustn’t be just a museum but a living residence of God.”
The history of our community, according to the Head of the UGCC, dates back to Andrey Sheptytsky, a metropolitan of Kyiv-Halych, who made this church his pro-cathedral church. Moreover, he strengthened the axis of Kyiv-Halych, which we have preserved until this day.”Around this historical and spiritual center of unity of our people, we should start this year similarly to how we confronted our northern neighbors many years ago.
This axis of Kyiv-Halych is life-giving for our people and the Church, and everyone who wanted to conquer our people tried to break it. They wanted to isolate Galicia from Kyiv and pivot Kyiv from the Ukrainian people to the far North,” said the spiritual leader.”While preparing for the celebration of the 1125th anniversary of Halych, we did not comprehend that this year would be the year of our future victory,” the archbishop emphasized.
The UGCC Department for Information
