His Beatitude Sviatoslav asks the faithful to pray for the successful holding of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2022

Monday, 04 July 2022, 22:13

Our bishops could not physically gather at the Synod due to the pandemic for two years. Now, for the first time in the recent history of our Church, we are holding a Synod of Bishops during wartime. I am asking all of you to pray daily, saying a prayer to the Holy Spirit “Heavenly King”. This will be a significant support for us. With these words, the Father and Head of the UGCC His Beatitude Sviatoslav addressed the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Sunday, July 3 at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.

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The Head of the UGCC noted that this week, on July 7 on the holiday of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist another session of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which will last until July 15, solemnly begins.

Bishops from around the world will gather at this event, says the Primate, to hold a “synodal act”, as Cardinal Lubomyr Huzar once described it.

“We know that on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, power from above, descended on the apostles. Only after that they were able to preach the same Gospel of Christ in different parts of the world and perform the Holy Sacraments by the power and action of the same Spirit. As a matter of fact, once a year, the bishops of our Church from around the world gather to renew the gift of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, to commonly think on how to serve our people, how to build the life of the Church for a new period. Then the bishops return to their eparchies, where in different languages and in different cultures they embody the tradition, the treasure of the Kyiv Church,” explained His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

The Head of the Church asked the faithful: “Pray for your bishops, so that the Synod will truly be a moment of restoration of the gift of the Holy Spirit, a new Pentecost for our Church, so we as one Body of Christ, can commonly serve our people and our state, which suffer from Russian military aggression. Pray that our bishops in different parts of the world will speak to the conscience of the world public in the same way, and that the global Ukrainian community serve Ukraine with one heart and one mouth, which needs special support.”

“The Synod is an event not only for bishops. The Synod is an event of our entire Church, the Primate emphasized. - This is the time when we all experience the consecration, the experience that our Church is one, holy, cathedral and apostolic. Therefore, we continue to live in the modern world with this spirit of Pentecost.”

Therefore, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, on behalf of all bishops, thanked the faithful for the future prayer support.

As it is known, the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2022 will be held in Przemyśl (Poland) from July 7 to 15. Its main topic is “Synodality and catholicity: the experience of the UGCC.”

The UGCC Department for Information