Joint ecumenical prayer for the prosperity of Ukraine

On July 2, 2009, a joint prayer for the prosperity of Ukraine took place at the Kyivan National Center for Organ and Chamber Music of Ukraine. The event was organized by the Ukrainian Biblical Society. In the opening speech, Hryhoriy Komendant, president of the Ukrainian Biblical Society (Christian non-confessional society which is devoted to translating and distributing the Bible and other books in Ukraine) asked that Christians from different confessions pray together. Head of the UGCC His Beatitude Lubomyr, as the representative of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, told the participants of the joint prayer that: “The Lord God, who created us, bestowed different talents upon us: free will, reason, wisdom, among others. Therefore, it is extraordinarily important that we appeal to the Lord in prayer, so that He, who created us, helps us Ukrainians to serve Him and our nation.” Head of the UGCC said that praying for our motherland, for Ukraine, is highly individual. “When we say ‘I Love Ukraine,’ it sounds beautiful enough, but it has an abstract element to it. What does it actually mean for each of us?” asked His Beatitude Lubomyr. He asked everyone to pray that God blessed us with the desire to work, to not want to sin but to want to do good. The musical part of the prayer, conducted by bandleader of the Kyivan Symphony Orchestra and Choir Roger Mak-Merrin, began after the appeal of His Beatitude Lubomyr. Participants of the joint prayer for the prosperity of Ukraine enjoyed the sounds of music by Ellar and Rakhmaninov as well as the spiritual hymn of glory for catholic saint Francis of Assisi, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” works by Bortnyanskyj and Berezovskyj and “Prayer for Ukraine” by Mykola Lysenko.   President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliya Timoshenko greeted the participants of the prayer through letters. The President wrote that the “unified voice of the Christian Churches will serve to unify the nation. It will be instrumental in mobilizing spiritual strength to assist in the development of the state and in overcoming the political and economic crisis.”

Information Department of the UGCC