Video Message of the Head of the UGCC on the 214th Week of the Full-Scale War, March 22, 2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
We continue to count the days, nights, and weeks of this terrible war. This Sunday marks the 214th week of the full-scale invasion. Yet our people—and our Church in particular—pray fervently for peace in Ukraine and throughout the world as we reflect on the Passion of the Lord.
This week was again marked by nightly Russian attacks on peaceful cities and villages across Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia region suffered heavily. The enemy struck the Black Sea coast—Odesa and the surrounding region. A major escalation on the front lines is unfolding near Zaporizhzhia, particularly in the area of Huliaipole in the south of our homeland. Yet the Ukrainian military is heroically repelling the enemy’s attacks and preventing any advance on Ukrainian soil.
This week will also be remembered in the history of universal Christianity for another reason. Within just three days, the Lord called two prominent figures of the Orthodox world—particularly from the territory of the former Soviet Union—into eternity. On March 17, Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian Orthodox Church, who has led the Church since 1977, passed away. For more than half a century, he served as a spiritual father to an entire nation.
And just two days later, on March 20, the Lord called the Honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Patriarch Filaret, into eternity. He, too, was a landmark figure for Ukrainian Orthodoxy, particularly in the effort to build an independent local Church and free it from Russian domination. Patriarch Filaret played a significant role in the life of independent Ukraine during its formative years. We are grateful for the relationships that have developed between our Churches over the past 35 years of the independent Ukrainian state.
Today, I would like to express our condolences to our Orthodox brothers in Georgia and Ukraine. Together, we pray for the eternal rest of these two patriarchs, Ilia and Filaret, who were among the oldest hierarchs of the Orthodox world in our time. May the Lord receive them into His eternal embrace and grant them eternal memory.
This week, we also reflected on and worked toward the future of Ukraine. A fruitful meeting took place at our Patriarchal Center in Kyiv with the Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, during which we agreed to coordinate our efforts for the benefit of Ukrainian youth, who so deeply need spiritual and moral guidance from the Church, as well as the nurturing presence of the Mother Church. They also need support and understanding from the state.
We hope that our Patriarchal Commission on Youth Pastoral Care and the Ministry of Youth and Sports will be able to work together to achieve this noble goal. Today, Ukrainian youth are shaping new markers of their identity, both within Ukraine and beyond its borders. Much depends here on both the Church and the state.
Another event this week had a significant impact on Christians in Ukraine. Seventy percent of the country’s population identifies as Christian. Nevertheless, we must do everything possible to ensure that the Ukrainian people remain a Christian people in the third millennium. For this reason, a Movement of Christians of Ukraine has been launched so that, together, we may fulfill our responsibility for the future and take ownership of the destiny of the Ukrainian people and our state.
An inaugural coordination meeting was held with the participation of the heads of Ukraine’s Christian Churches, as well as our faithful—particularly young people, who are now actively engaged in this work. On behalf of the Christians of Ukraine, we once again declare to the whole world today: Ukraine stands firm! Ukraine fights! Ukraine prays!
This Sunday, according to the liturgical calendar of Great Lent—specifically the Eastern Paschal cycle—marks the fourth Sunday of Great Lent. This season is a time to test our Christian maturity—a time to see how fully we embody our faith in our personal decisions, our actions, and our daily lives.
This week, we have felt how Christians in Ukraine truly listen to the voice of God, which resounds today on our land. Various spiritual events took place in our cities and villages. In particular, Christians carried the Cross of the Lord and walked the Way of the Cross, retracing His suffering.
This week, we also sensed that Ukraine itself is at the epicenter of global change. The future—both of Ukraine and of the world—depends on how we respond today to the tragedy of war. That is why Christians of different Churches and denominations have united in prayer and are coordinating their work and ministry.
Today, I would like to recall that the Christian spiritual journey, especially during Great Lent, has from ancient times been marked by three forms of devotion: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Saint Peter Chrysologus spoke profoundly about the unity of these three forms of Christian life—and the impossibility of separating them—particularly during Great Lent. He says: “What prayer knocks at the heavens, fasting obtains, and almsgiving receives.”
Without fasting, our prayer can often become a retreat into our own thoughts—sometimes even an escape from reality. Fasting, however, makes our prayer genuine, enabling it to reach the heavens and unite us with our heavenly Father through the voice of God’s Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And almsgiving brings fasting to life. Without almsgiving, fasting becomes a barren desert. Almsgiving, by contrast, is like water that irrigates the field of fasting, where we sow our spiritual virtues. It enables us to receive what we ask for, because we ourselves do not turn away those who come to us in need. Thus, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving form one single reality of the Christian spiritual effort during Great Lent.
Let us reflect on how we pray, how we fast, and what works of mercy we carry out during this journey toward the Resurrection.
Today, the prayers of Christians rise up first and foremost for peace in our homeland. We pray: Lord, stop the war; bless our land with Your just, heavenly peace. This is the purpose of our fasting. And this is the purpose of the alms and solidarity we seek to share today with Ukraine and with the world.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for mankind, always, now and forever, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
