Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), gave an Independence Day Address August 24 in the Church of the Annunciation to the Holy Mother of God during Hierarchal Divine Liturgy.

“For today's celebration of our statehood, our independence, we need not only look at secular principles of behavior but at the concepts of the holy faith,” said the head of the UGCC. According to him, as reports the Information Department of the UGCC, our demeanor, our consideration of civil obligations, should be built on the Divine law. “Our civil life should follow Divine orders and not the political situation,” stated the patriarch in his address.

In practice this means every member of the community, regardless of his status, should fulfill his “holy duty to care for the good of his neighbor.” “A lack of respect to the rights of neighbors, for whatever reason be it carelessness, laziness, fear, search of the personal benefit, is to resist the Divine will, similarly as the insidious use of human weakness through corruption, injustice, manipulation, or deception for the sake of reaching selfish goals,” cautioned Patriarch Lubomyr.

The Hierarchal Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Mother of God was celebrated by Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), Secretary of Synod of Bishops of UGCC, Bishop Joseph (Milyan), auxiliary bishop of the Kyivan Archeparchy, and priests of the Kyivan Archeparchy of the UGCC. Upon completion of the divine service all jointly prayed to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky for the Ukrainian nation.