Patriarch Sviatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) initiated an ecumenical prayer to be held at 6 p.m., on January 22, in the Church of St. Basil the Great of the UGCC.
The Head of UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav, Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson, Archbishop Petro Malchuk of Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and clergymen of the Orthodox and Protestant Churches will speak at the event.
RISU learned from Ihor Shaban, the head of the Ecumenical Committee of the UGCC, that Christians from all over Europe will pray together for the 44th time during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity organized by a joint work team of the World Council of Churches (nearly all the Orthodox and Protestant Churches of the World) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
This year’s theme of the week is “We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The main idea of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be based on the experience of the churches of Poland whose history is full of defeats and victories. Christians of Poland argue that the aspiration for the unity of the church depends exclusively on each Christian: “All of us Christians should open up to each other to present to each other the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In that way, we will transform in Jesus Christ, our true and only Lord.”
The UGCC invites Christians of all denominations who care about the question of church unity to participate.