UGCC Head in the 129th Week of the War: I Took Patriarch Bartholomew’s Foreword to My Book as a Significant Sign of Support
We see that one aspect of healing wounds is through interchurch, particularly ecumenical, dialogue. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, mentioned this in his traditional video address during the 129th week of the full-scale war—a major confrontation along the entire front line that has caused much bloodshed.
Meeting of His Beatitude Sviatoslav with Patriarch Bartholomew in Kyiv on August 23, 2021
The Primate noted that the enemy is attempting to break through to the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, where our priest remains with his people, regardless of the cost.
“Therefore, our entire Church offers special prayers for our priests and believers who face immediate danger of death every day,” he added.
According to him, last week, the enemy launched the largest massive air attack on Kyiv overnight in the past year, with about 40 different types of strike weapons destroyed over our capital. Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, and Odesa are under Russian attack daily. We ask the Lord God for the strength to resist evil.
“However,” the spiritual leader emphasized, “this week also marked a bright and joyful event that had been anticipated for almost two years: a large exchange of prisoners of war between criminal Russia and Western countries. Twenty-six citizens of Germany, the United States, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia were finally able to return home. We thank the Lord God for every life saved. Each of these exchanges is a beacon of hope for tens of thousands of illegally imprisoned people who endure terrible torture in Russian prisons, places of death, and abuse every day.”
In addition, the Head of the UGCC noted that at the end of this week, an important spiritual event in the life of our Church occurred—the annual Patriarchal pilgrimage to the ancient city of Halych, to the foundations of the Assumption Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars in 1240. Thousands of our faithful came to Krylos Mountain to pray before the Krylos Miraculous Icon for a just peace for the Ukrainian land and for those who are losing heart and are in pain from the trauma of this war.
“Our hope is in God. There, on Krylos Mountain, we declared to ourselves and the whole world: Ukraine stands, Ukraine fights, Ukraine prays!” stated His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
These days, we especially feel, he assures, the importance of interchurch and interreligious cooperation in Ukraine: “Ecumenical dialogue heals the wounds we may have inflicted on each other over the centuries, which sometimes hurt and prevent us from praying together and celebrating the Divine Liturgy at one altar.”
At the same time, the Primate was glad that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote the foreword to the Polish-language edition of his daily addresses from the first year of the war.
“I took it as a significant sign of support,” the spiritual leader noted and added: “I express my deep gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew for this gesture of consideration for our Church and for his numerous manifestations of support for the suffering Ukrainian people, who are struggling to defend their right to exist.”
The UGCC Department for Information
