Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Consecrates Church in Deliatyn: “People Build Churches for Their Future”
“Today we are experiencing a historic moment. It is like lightning in the mountains, illuminating with heavenly light what is usually hidden from human eyes—especially during a stormy night. This is the light of God, which, in an instant, unites the past and the present and opens the horizon of the future, for it is permeated with God’s presence. Christ Himself is now among us. Through our hands, He has sanctified this temple. He has come to you as your Savior, your hope, your strength—and our Ukrainian victory.”
These were the words of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, during the Liturgy marking the consecration of the newly built Church of All Saints of the Ukrainian People in Deliatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region.
The Head of the UGCC was welcomed by hundreds of faithful, as children and youth greeted him with a festive program.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, joined by numerous bishops and priests, performed the rite of consecration of the church and altar. He washed the altar with water, wine, and rosewater, and anointed it with holy myrrh. A procession followed around the church with the relics of the saints. The Patriarch then placed the relics inside the altar and sealed them with molten wax.
In his sermon, the Father and Head of the UGCC noted that although God speaks to us, “we are not always able to hear Him or recognize Him among us. Sometimes we remain blind and deaf because we are too consumed by our own darkness and do not raise our gaze to the light of God shining nearby.”
“To heal us—to open our spiritual eyes, restore our spiritual hearing, and renew the gift of speech—the Lord has just spoken to us through the Holy Gospel. The evangelist Matthew presents Jesus as the eternal light of God, who enlightens, heals, frees humanity, and restores our freedom and voice,” the Primate explained.
Reflecting on the Gospel account of the blind men who regained their sight through faith, he added: “In this event, we see the fulfillment of the words of the prophet David, whom these blind men recognized in Jesus Christ.” The bishop went on: “Christ is the light in which we behold our Heavenly Father. He reveals Himself in His Son and is made known through the power and action of the Holy Spirit.”
Today, this church has become a lamp lit by the light of God. It will shine upon Deliatyn, Hutsulshchyna, and all of Ukraine. Christ comes to enlighten us—those sitting in the darkness of fear and pain—with the light of hope. He shows us that we have the strength to overcome the evil spirit that once held the possessed man in captivity. It is God’s light that brings the radiance of freedom, which the saints of the Ukrainian people carried within themselves, which emanated from them, and to which they bore witness. It is to them that this church is dedicated,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized.
He expressed gratitude to the community for building the church together: “This shows that Ukraine was, is, and will be. Churches are built not for the past and not only for the present, but for the future.”
“With Christ, no darkness can deprive us of our freedom—neither national nor ecclesiastical—nor can it destroy our language, which shapes us as a people. We will have a future only if we preserve our faith in God,” the Patriarch stressed.
He called on fathers and mothers to pass on the light of faith to their children: “Just as we lit a candle in the church, so kindle the light of Christ’s faith in the hearts of your children, and they will never lose their bearings in life.”
He noted that “the light we speak of today appears in many forms in the life of our people—in the art of faithful, skilled doctors, through whom God brings healing, hope, and true medicine to those wounded by war.”
“This light shines through believing teachers who, despite bombings in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Odesa, continue to educate children—not only intellectually, but also in the truth of Christ. For God can only be known through personal communication in prayer. This light, like the light of hope, shines today through our reborn Church, which is the only Church in Ukraine that unites Ukrainians both at home and abroad,” explained the Head of the UGCC.
The Primate concluded: “This feast day, like a flash of heavenly lightning, illuminates the faces of all gathered here in the temple, united in prayer.” “Today, we pray with you—and with all of heaven—for peace in Ukraine, for our army, for the young men and women on the front lines who have made this day of light in Deliatyn possible. We ask Jesus: just as You healed the blind men and freed the possessed man—free us, heal us, enlighten us with Your light. For in You is the assurance of our hope; in Your light we will see the light.”
At the end of the Liturgy, patriarchal letters were presented to the parish rector of All Saints of the Ukrainian People in Deliatyn, Fr. Bohdan Ivanyuk; the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council, Mr. Oleksandr Sych; and the head of the Deliatyn Territorial Community, Mr. Bohdan Klymyuk.
Fr. Bohdan Ivanyuk expressed his gratitude to His Beatitude Sviatoslav for the visit, the consecration of the church, and the first Liturgy celebrated there. As a token of appreciation, he presented the Patriarch with a painting of the Carpathian Mountains by a local artist.
The service concluded with a joint performance of the spiritual anthem of Ukraine, “God, Great and One.”
The UGCC Department for Information
