Interdenominational Prayer Held at Ukrainian Catholic University

Representatives of four Christian denominations, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, on January 24 participated in an ecumenical prayer in the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. The joint meeting was organized by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity held on January 18-25.

According to the priests, the traditional joint prayer in UCU is a good opportunity for Christians to make a step toward each other.

“We must struggle for the unity of the Church. We must pray for its unity. So we can return to Christ during His Second Coming the same whole and unified Church that He left us,” said Bishop Venedykt of Lviv of the UGCC.

The bishop noted that, unfortunately, the Church of Christ is now divided and everyone has put up with this status quo.

“But this is not a normal situation, Christ prayed for the Church to be one. Therefore, the responsibility for the disintegration lies on all the Churches,” the bishop said.

A representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church, deacon Armen, also stressed that the unity of Christians depends on us and God would gladly help us to be together if we sincerely desire it. “If we want to be together, to be in unity, we already have it. There can be an administrative unity. But it will not be of any value if there is no unity in spirit. We are not saints but we just seek sainthood. God watches us and gives us what we desire,” he said.

The importance of prayer and unification in Christ was also addressed by Orthodox ministers Fr. Mykoalai Bobyk of the UOC-KP and Fr. Vasyl Kulynych of the UAOC. The joint prayer meeting ended with carols performed by the choir of the Lviv Stauropigeon Brotherhood of Andrew the First-Called-Apostle of the UAOC from Lviv.