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On January 25-26, 2020, at 18.00, as
part of the "Week of Prayers for Christian Unity", interfaith prayer
Services took place in the churches of the UGCC and the RCC in Ukraine.
Thus, in Kyiv, Patriarch Sviatoslav of the UGCC, jointly prayed with
the bishops of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Churches prayed
in the Church of St. Basil, who, together with Christians around the
world, showed solidarity in their desire for unity.
The main theme and slogan of this
Ecumenical Week were the words from the acts of the Apostles: "Let us be
merciful” (Di, 28, 2). This was stated by Bishop Oleksandr (Drabynko),
Metropolitan of Pereyaslav and Vishneve, who rules the Diocese of
Pereyaslav and Vyshneve of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
He noted that the Church in Ukraine is
divided today. "We cherish our own identities, which, unfortunately, are
often formed along the confessional lines rather than Evangelical ones.
And this is sad, because giving preference to the secondary, we
sometimes lose ourselves as Christians," the preacher said.
According to him, human personality can
only take place in a state of communication, through sacrificial
openness to God and other people.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav thanked God at
the end of the prayer service, which infuses into our hearts the
necessity and inevitability of Christian unity.
The head of the UGCC thanked Bishop
Oleksandr (Drabinko) for his speech. He also asked me to convey to the
Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, the
words of gratitude for the fact that the Synod of the OCU established
the Department of External Church Relations, and that this new Church is
born in openness to the brethren of other Christian communities. He
also thanked the brothers of the Roman Catholic Church and the
representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church. "Together we are called
to witness that active Christian love," added His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The head of the Church expressed gratitude for the wide presence of
Protestant brothers.
“And for the first time, we have a
representative of an interesting community of Christian Jews among us.
Tomorrow, the whole world will celebrate the victims of the Holocaust,
the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a concentration
camp where many representatives of the Jewish people, as well as
priests, monks, and nuns of different Nations and nationalities, died,”
the head of the UGCC said.
According to the press service of the Kharkiv Exarchate of the UGCC, a week of prayers for the unity of Christians was held
in Kharkiv. Ecumenical prayer events were held in the main churches of
the city with the participation of bishops, clergy, monastics and
numerous believers. The Week of Prayers ended in the lower Church of the
Holy Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker of the UGCC.
On this day, the inter-Confessional
prayer service was led by Bishop Vasily (Tuchapets), Exarch of Kharkiv,
together with Archbishop Igor (Isichenko) of the UAOC and Bishop
Mitrofan of the OCU, priests of the UGCC, RCC, UAOC, OCU, and AAC
(Armenian Apostolic Church).
Bishop Igor, who stressed that Kharkiv
residents showed hospitality and unity because they had received IDPs
from the war zone more than other regions. Speaking about the Ecumenical
Week of Prayers, the preacher noted that “his challenge is to test his
power of prayer, his own sense of identity, and to be able to rise above
the political conflicts of the past that still dominate us today and
prevent us from honestly praying with each other.”
“Joint prayer, meetings and
communication brought us closer to each other and opened our hearts even
more so that we could show mercy, love, and goodwill to each other,”
Bishop Vasily said at the end, thanking everyone for their joint prayer.
“Let this prayer, the sermons that we
heard every day, be our guide, so that we, as true Christians, grow in
love with each other,” added the Exarch of Kharkiv.
On January 25, 2020, an ecumenical prayer service was held
in Lviv at the Metropolitan Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. The common prayer was joined by representatives of the
clergy of different faiths. This prayer service in Lviv ended the Week
of Prayers for the unity of Christians.
