His Beatitude Sviatoslav congratulated His Beatitude Epiphanij

To His Beatitude Epiphanij

Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine

Your Beatitude!

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Personally and on behalf of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the end of the Unity Council, the fruit of which was the election of you to the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. First of all, we are grateful to the Lord who has blessed the participants of this, without exaggeration, an important event that will enter the history of independent Ukraine as a great God's gift on the way to the complete unity of the Churches of Volodymyr's Baptism.

We have all witnessed how the Lord, through the power and deeds of the Holy Spirit, in cooperation with your good will, heals the wounds of church divisions and enmity, giving opportunity to reconcile with our brother in Christ. Before the face of the Kyiv Oranta, the patron saint of our long-suffering and God-loving people, you passed the exam of faithfulness to the Christ's commandment of the unity of thought, testifying the desire to "have one heart and one soul" (see Acts 4, 32).

There is a lot of work ahead of you, but I believe that the Lord will "bless the work of His hands," and we will soon see the good fruits of your archpastoral ministry. I pray that the process of uniting Orthodox communities under your pretense would be marked by brotherly love and constant memory about the good of our people.

"How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!" (Ps. 133, 1). These important words of David's psalmist are for us, the Churches of Volodymyr's baptism, which were born in the font of the Dnieper waters, a task for further common life. We live in one liturgical heritage, from the depths of beauty and God-inspired wisdom we draw spiritual strength. Even today, we are not in full eucharistic communion, but are called to jointly overcome the obstacles that stand on the path to unity. This historic mission and the foundation of the future patriarchy of the united Kyivan Church were laid by even the glorious church men Peter Mohyla and Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky.

At this significant moment, I extend my hand on behalf of our Church to you and all the Orthodox brethren, offering you to begin our path to unity, to the truth. Because the future of the Church, our people and the Ukrainian independent European state depends on how we today will cherish unity and overcome what separates us. God is the one who unites us around us.

Let the newborn Savior, whose Christmas with great hope awaits every Christian soul, generously bless you and give you the strength and inspiration to fulfill His holy will, which is the salvation of all people.

I hope you, being confirmed in faith, supported by hope, active in love, under the care and patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Savior, become good instruments in the hands of the Lord and skillfully use the gift that was given to you.

With prayer and assurance of cooperation for God's glory and the good of our Ukrainian people

+ SVIATOSLAV

 Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church