Head of the UGCC: "Today, Christians of different Churches and denominations must heal the wounds of schisms, divisions, and adversities"
The head of the UGCC noted that inter-Christian relations are very important, and Christians of different Churches and denominations must try to heal the wounds of schisms, divisions, and adversities.
"Our Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world. We preserve the liturgical, spiritual and canonical heritage of the Byzantine Church. We consider the Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate our Mother Church, for the Good News of the Holy Gospel came to us from Constantinople. However, our Church lives in full communion with the successor of Peter the Apostle, the Pope. As the Church of the Kyivan tradition, we bear witness to the Church's state in our lands, its state before the division, before the schism between Rome and Constantinople. And today, we want to embody this thousand-year-old tradition of memory and struggle for unity among Christians," said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
"The Pope, the successor of Peter the Apostle," notes His Beatitude Sviatoslav, "is a servant of the universal unity of the Church of Christ, its visible heart, a voice calling upon all to be one, as the Lord commanded... As the Local Church of the Ukrainian people, we wish to implement the fruits of the search for universal unity in the Christian church context of Ukraine".
The head of the UGCC emphasized that today we stand before our Lord and thank Him for heeding our prayers. Yesterday, we received news about another exchange of prisoners of war. 116 defenders of Ukraine were freed from Russian captivity.
"We pray for all Ukrainians taken to Russian concentration and filtration camps. Let us pray for the liberation of the captives, the healing of the wounded and their families," His Beatitude Sviatoslav urged.
