“His Beatitude Sviatoslav stands before the great God, and he feels God's peace and God's joy in his heart. He raises us with a kind word. He encourages young and old. He defends those who are at the front, in the Crimea, those who are disadvantaged. And how many beautiful carols His Beatitude sang together with the needy on Christmas Eve in Kyiv! This was said by Bishop Borys, Metropolitan of Philadelphia, in his greeting speech on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the enthronement of the Father and Head of the UGCC.
"Ten years ago, when the bishops of the UGCC gathered to elect a new Father and Head of our Church, I had the honor to deliver a sermon to all the Fathers of the Synod and the faithful who were in St. Yura Cathedral at that time," the bishop recalled.
He quoted several thoughts from it: “Today, when the Holy Synod is faced with the question of choosing a new leader, we have only one criterion - to be with the great God. Having removed all possible blinds and restrictions, to open the spirit and the heart, spread the wings … so that the mystery of the living God, the infinite and incomprehensible Creator, reigns in us ...”
“Ten years have passed, and we have the Primate who helps us to be with God,” the Metropolitan said.
According to him, His Beatitude Sviatoslav shows the standard of liturgical prayer: “He calls us by his example to stand before the great God. He prays beautifully. We thank Zhyve TV that this example is global today…"
In his speech, he recalled the main moments of the development of our Church over the past ten years, in particular the evolvement of metropolitanates, eparchies, exarchates, and the ordination of new bishops. "The world has never been so Ukrainian. And the UGCC has never been so global," he observed.
The UCU President also drew attention to modern challenges, including war, emigration, the economic crisis and the pandemic. He noticed that following the example of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, who once went to the Paris Peace Conference and addressed the League of Nations to protect the people, His Beatitude Sviatoslav held many similar meetings on different continents and in different countries.
"We have the Father and the Head," he is convinced, "who protects us and intercedes for us. And the feature that speaks most to the young and to those who see His Beatitude for the first time is, perhaps, his smile and sense of humor.