Head of the UGCC: Ukraine feels itself in clutches of death

Ukraine is now bleeding. Tens of thousands of widows and mothers are mourning their sons. Once again, Ukraine feels itself in the clutches of death and abandoned, both by the West and the East. Everyone perceives us as a problem for which no solution is found. But today, Christ speaks to us: do not cry! Get up! I am your way out and hope! Fighting and winning is our way out.

This was said on October 22, by Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav during a sermon to the faithful in Manchester, where, at the invitation of Bishop Gleb (Lonchyna), the Eparch of the Diocese of the Holy Family in London, is staying during his official pastoral visit to the UK.

According to the Department of Information of the UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav congratulated the 60th anniversary of the creation of the exarchate and the diocese of the Holy Family of the UGCC in the UK. “We see that those 60 years were not easy. However, these years were an experience that the Lord God is with us in every, even the most difficult moment of our being: church and national, He came to his people. He was, is and will be with us! "- said the head of the UGCC.

The spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics made a parallel with the biblical history of the city of Nain with the history of the UGCC community in the UK. “After the Second World War, being hostage to the war that was carrying death, many sons and daughters of our land arrived in this foggy Albion ... Who was supposed to help them? I was told that our people were forced to go to the police once a week to receive a seal in the documents until 1967, if I am not mistaken. Our people were not even called Ukrainians, because they were told that such a state as Ukraine does not exist,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

Those fighters, continued the Primate, seemed to have lost any hope of freedom, for achieving which they paid with their blood, for which hundreds of sons and daughters of our Ukrainian land died in unequal struggle for free Ukraine. “But, I think, clustering around their Ukrainian churches, they heard this voice: do not cry! I tell you, get up! And they got up, lived, created and left us today the legacy of wonderful temples, culture, works of art, left their descendants and left us their dream of a free and independent Ukraine. The Risen Christ gave it to us. Our Ukrainians in Britain sang: Christ is resurrected, and Ukraine is rising again. And so it happened,” said the preacher.

“May the Lord be blessed, as He revealed Himself to our people here as a way out of hopelessness, a hand of help in a place where no one wanted to give that help,” said the hierarch.

The Head of the Church conveyed warm greetings from the brothers and sisters from Ukraine, from the Motherland. "Celebrating this jubilee, we feel that God has visited his people. He is with us today and will be forever,” said the Head of the Church.

As reported, the official visit of the Head of the UGCC to Great Britain lasts from 19 to 31 October 2017.