Head of UGCC Calls Christians to Look for Opportunities to Pray Together

Within the framework of the Week of Prayers For Unity of Christians, on 23 January, in the Church of St. Basil the Great (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)), representatives of the main denominations of Ukraine jointly prayed for the unity of Christians. The head of UGCC, Patriarch Lubomyr prayed together with the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Ivan Jurkovic, bishops and priests of UGCC and RCC in Ukraine, Dominican Fathers and teachers of Catholic higher education institutions of Ukraine, clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Pastors of the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of Ukraine (Pentecostals) and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine. Assistant Bishop of the Kyivan Archeparchy of UGCC, Bishop Yosyf (Milian) led the prayer.

In his address to the participants, Patriarch Lubomyr stressed the importance of the joint meeting and prayer: «Unfortunately, we still are not able to break bread together as we are not grown up enough for that but, perhaps, in future this can also happen. However, before it happens we must jointly or separately pray for unity. It is a difficult proposal. If we realize it, it seems to me that our communities will undergo serious changes.»

The Head of UGCC stressed the need to look for even small opportunities to be together with representatives of various confessions. «If we gather once per month, older and younger ones, perhaps even develop a calendar of meetings, and listen to God’s Word together, communicate together, pray together or even eat together, it would be a good ground primarily for our soul and for our unification. Let us think about it! If we fulfil it, the world would be much better,» noted the head of UGCC.

In his comment on the meeting, the head of the Committee of UGCC for Promotion of Unity Between Christians, Fr. Dr. Ihor Shaban noted: «Today’s prayer is closely connected with the Christian Church of Jerusalem, for it was the Palestinian Christians who were entrusted with the task to prepare the theme of the Week this year. They turned to the Bible text „united in the teaching of the Apostles, community, breaking bread and prayer,“ which in their view is the most illustrative of the essence of the Church of Jerusalem of the first century, the „mother of all the Churches.“ So reported the Press-Service of UGCC.

„As Christians, we all really desire unity but often we understand that it is difficult to achieve this unity at the social level. In my opinion, it should first of all be reached through one’s personal spiritual life. Our future depends on our good opinion of our brothers and sisters in the faith,“ noted Protopriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Fr. Mykola Danylevych.

RISU