UGCC Patriarch led interfaith prayer for Christian Unity

Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Patriarch Sviatoslav led an interfaith Prayer for Christian Unity, held on January 23, 2017 at the Church of St. Basil the Great in Kyiv, within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

In remarks to the faithful, the Primate thanked God and all the participants for a joint prayer for unity among Christians. “Lord God sends us a very interesting prophetic sign,” said the patriarch, “because our prayer brings together representatives of all the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Our task today is to witness Christ, the only cornerstone on which the personal life, life of the church and our society should be built.”

Attending the  ecumenical prayer, in particular, were: Bishop Vitaliy (Skomarovsky), Secretary General of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine, Bishop Marcos (Oganesyan), head of the Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, representative of the Lutheran Church in Ukraine.

According to Fr. Ihor Shaban, head of the UGCC Commission for Promoting Christian unity, the main theme of reflections and a slogan of this ecumenical week were the words of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5, 14-20) – “The love of Christ urges us toward reconciliation.”

Father Igor said that Ukraine, like the rest of Europe, marks 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In view of this, representative of the Protestant community Anatoliy Kozachok, Bishop of Kyiv region of the Union of Evangelical Christians., was invited to preach at this year’s prayer.

This topic has been prepared by Christians in Germany, who made a special focus on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and tried to emphasize, on the one hand, the importance of God’s love and grace for Christians, and on the other – to draw attention to the pain caused by deep wounds of separation between the Churches. In their opinion, the world needs ministers of reconciliation to break barriers, erect bridges, bring peace and open the door to a new life in the name of the one who has reconciled us to God, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is a guide on the road to reconciliation in His name. It has been reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.