“We call our Synod the Synod of Hope for our Church and the Ukrainian people”: His Beatitude Sviatoslav
We sincerely welcome all the members of the Synod of Bishops of our Church who have gathered in such large numbers today to work in the Eternal City. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, greeted the bishops of the Synod of Bishops after the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia Basilica on Sunday, September 3.
The Head of the UGCC congratulated the bishops of the Synod on this momentous event, recalling the responsibility and prayers of many people for the effective running of this year’s meetings. His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that this is an unprecedented Synod. In the last year only, our Church has received six new bishops.
“Today, we have 56 members of the Synod of Bishops. And this is a record number! Interestingly, while going through the materials yesterday, I noticed that almost half of them are younger than me. It means that our Synod is not getting older but younger every year. Therefore, we call our Synod the Synod of Hope for our Church and the Ukrainian people,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
According to the Patriarch, the Synod represents the global image of our Church. “All our metropolitans are gathered here at the altar. We only miss our metropolitan from Canada. But there are the United States of America, Brazil, Poland, and all the metropolitans from Ukraine. I am so pleased to see that there are our bishops who face death every day: Bishop Vasyl Tuchapets from Kharkiv, Bishop Stepan Meniok and his assistant Bishop Maksym Ryabukha from Donetsk, who are now forced to live in Zaporizhzhia. Every day, we read the news that Russian missiles are shelling Zaporizhzhia. The Exarch of Odesa, Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, is also with us today. We especially pray for our exarchate in Crimea, for all our fathers and people there. We also pray for all those in the occupied territories,” he said.
“Therefore, our Synod today is a special, young, effective face of our Church, which is the hope of the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their future,” the Head of the Church emphasized.
We remind you that this year’s Synod of Bishops of the UGCC will be held on September 3–13 in Rome, Italy. Its central theme is “Pastoral Support for Victims of War.”
The UGCC Department for Informationbased on the materials of the press service of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC
