Head of UGCC calls Christians to look for opportunities to pray together

As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, on January 23 representatives of the main denominations of Ukraine jointly prayed for the unity of Christians in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of St. Basil the Great.

The head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Lubomyr prayed together with the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Ivan Jurkovic; bishops and priests of the UGCC and the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine; Dominican priests and teachers of Catholic higher education institutions of Ukraine; clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church; and pastors of the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of Ukraine (Pentecostals) and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine.  Assistant Bishop of the Kyivan Archeparchy of UGCC, Bishop Josyf Milyan led the prayer.

In his address to the participants, Patriarch Lubomyr stressed the importance of the joint meeting and prayer: “Unfortunately, we are still not able to break bread together as we are not mature enough for that, but, perhaps, in the future this can happen. Before it happens, however, we must — jointly or separately — pray for unity. It is a difficult proposal. If we realize it, I believe our communities will undergo serious changes.”  

The head of UGCC stressed the need to look for even the smallest opportunities to be together with representatives of various denominations. “If we gather once per month, both old and young, perhaps even develop a schedule of meetings, and listen to God’s Word together, communicate together, pray together or even eat together, it would be good for our souls and for our unification. Let us think about it! If we fulfill it, the world would be much better,” noted the head of the UGCC.

In his comment on the meeting, Fr. Ihor Shaban, Ph.D., the head of the Committee of the UGCC for Promotion of Christian Unity, noted: “Today’s prayer is closely connected with the Christian Church of Jerusalem for it was the Palestinian Christians who were entrusted with the task to prepare the topic for this year's week of prayer.  They turned to the Bible to the text 'united in the teaching of the Apostles, community, breaking bread and prayer,' which in their view is the most illustrative of the essence of the Church of Jerusalem of the first century, the 'mother of all the churches,'" reported the press service of the UGCC.

“As Christians, we all really desire unity, but often we understand that it is difficult to achieve this unity at the social level. In my opinion, it should first of all be reached through one’s personal spiritual life. Our future depends on the good opinion of our brothers and sisters in faith,” noted protopriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Fr. Mykola Danylevych.