10 years ago His Beatitude Lubomyr described the church’s prospects

Ten years ago, on January 26, 2001, it was officially announced that His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomyr was elected the new head of the UGCC. On January 28, 2001, in St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv a Hierarchal Liturgy was celebrated, during which the newly elected hierarch of the church was enthroned. In his enthronization speech His Beatitude Lubomyr emphasized his two main tasks: to increase faith and unity in Christ. “To live in faith, to help faithful and nonbelievers so that we are all united in faith, so our people and our church were united in Christ Jesus. And this is not my personal program. This is what we inherited from our ancestors. And we want to make it true. In today’s climate we glorify God who gave us this gift,” His Beatitude Lubomyr said on January 28, 2001. "On this throne sat the metropolitans of Halych and so we continue the life of our Church. More than a thousand years the Lord God bestowed upon our nation the gift of the holy faith. And our nation gladly accepted this gift. And it was this faith that formed our nation,” continued the patriarch. “Last century, the century of terrible persecution, people put down their lives to keep this faith,” said the newly elected head. “We have many martyrs and confessors in the ranks of the Church, and we must maintain this most valuable, most precious gift.” "We look at our Lord. We watch what he does, listen to what he says and learn from him. We learn what it means to live by faith,” observed His Beatitude Lubomyr. In his enthronization speech the head of the UGCC said that withholding from revenge for the times the church was persecution is a sign of great spirituality. His Beatitude advised “to look at oneself, one’s environment, the nation, the state, the Church through the eyes of Christ.” The patriarch also discussed the division between the Christians. He stressed that in the times of Prince Volodymyr there was one church and that today’s division may be a consequence of diminished faith. The head of the church saw a way to revive faith, to make it active in daily life, in the relations between Catholics, among Christians, and even in the lives of people of different faiths. After the death of the head of the UGCC Patriarch Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky on December 14, 2000, an extraordinary Synod of Bishops of the Church was convened. On January 26, 2001, the synod officially announced the election of His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomyr (Husar). The enthronization took place on January 28, 2001 in St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv. On the same day it was announced that Pope John Paul II nominated His Beatitude Lubomyr as a cardinal of the Catholic Church. During the first decade of Lubomyr Patriarch’s rule, the church found its faithful across all regions of Ukraine. The Donetsk-Kharkiv Eparchy of the UGCC was established on February 2002, the Odesa-Crimea Eparchy on July 28, 2003, and the Lutsk Exarchate on January 15, 2008. The most momentous event took place on August 21, 2005, when the See of the head of the UGCC was transferred from Lviv to Kyiv – the place of Volodymyr's baptism and to the capital of independent Ukraine. As His Beatitude Lubomyr stated in one recent interview, “we did not arrive – we returned to Kyiv.” The newest document presenting the UGCC’s vision of uniting the churches of Volodymyr's baptism is the synod’s message on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the legalization of the UGCC, the 65th anniversary of the death of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the 25th anniversary of death of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, which was passed on December 8, 2009. It this document the synod proposes a model for the future unity: "Instead of monopolistic domain of Christian Ukraine, which was characteristic of past epochs, we propose the unity of today’s still divided Kyivan Church. However, this unity, if it is to bring peace and understanding to Ukraine, must grow from within, in the bosom of every branch of the Kyivan Church. This process began in 1989 and became a defining moment the life of both the Greek Catholics and Orthodox communities in Ukraine. This task will not be easy, it will likely experience both advances and retreats, but, as our history testifies, it is indivertible because it embraces sacrifice and martyrdom, strength of spirit and the height of thoughts, fire of faith and sincerity of prayer.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFr20F2c7g

Information Department of the UGCC