St. Volodymyr's Parish

APPEAL of His BEATITUDE Sviatoslav

Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych of UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH

On the occasion of the Saint Grand Duke Volodymyr AND RESTORATION religious vows

 Reverend Fathers, Reverend Monks, Dearly Beloved in Christ, laity of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and all people of good will, blessings and peace in the Lord!

Dearly Beloved in Christ!

 It has become a good tradition in our Church on the feast of St. Volodymyr the Great, Confessor of Rus-Ukraine, to celebrate in solemn worship and restoring our baptismal vows. In these liturgical acts we firstly thank God for "the great gift of baptism" (Beat. John Paul II) that our ancestors received a thousand years ago and to pay tribute to the many generations of our people who have throughout their Christian history saved in their hearts the holy faith and handed it on to us, their descendants. This year on the feast of St. Volodymyr the Great, we call upon the clergy, religious orders and faithful of our Church, to continue to support our custom, and make this solemn act of gratitude to God in restoring the baptism’s vows. In common liturgical prayer, we glorify God for the fact that the light of the Gospel of Christ was planted in Kyiv mountains, and then - all over our motherland, and even far beyond its borders, and we want to thank Him for the grace of holy Baptism. At the same time in restoring our baptismal vows we want to express to our Creator and Savior, that we will publicly acknowledge our faith, defend it and live it in our personal, family, professional and social life.

Every time when we remember the Baptism of our ancestors in the Dnipro waters, upon the joy of the celebration, falls a shadow of awareness of wound of separation, which is still open in the ecclesial body of our people. Unfortunately, once the only Kyiv Metropolis, which was born from St. Volodymyr’s baptism, today is divided, and its children belonging to the four traditional Ukrainian Churches (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church), often carried in their hearts the bitter residue of various painful events that happened in the history of wrongs suffered, rooted prejudices and mistrust. Conscious of our responsibility before God and our  people, we urge the faithful and clergy of our Church to persistently seek ways of reconciliation and union with our brothers in faith. Our fervent prayer, sincere openness to dialogue, willingness to forgive and reconciliation we fulfill Christ's commandment "That they may all be one" (John 17, 21) and to approach the ideal of evangelical unity of the Church of Christ, for which martyrs of our Church from the time of St. Joshaphat until the new martyrs and confessors of the faith of the twentieth century suffered and gave their life.

2011 is the 1^st year of the 3 year preparation for the 1025^th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine that our Church will celebrate in 2013. According to the decision of the Synod of Bishops of Kiev-Halych Major Archeparchy, this first year of preparation is dedicated to God's Word. The Lord compared those who listen and keep His word to the wise builder, who built his house upon a rock (Matthew 7, 24). So if you we want our Ukrainian house built solidly to survive the pressures of internal and external trials we need to ensure that the Word of God becomes the foundation of our personal, family and social life.

We should start from the simplest: to make God's Word accessible to all our fellow citizens by spreading the sacred texts among our people. In our country, which is rightly called a Christian country, no house should be without a Bible – The Book that contains the word of God. Let the priests devote enough time and attention in the preparation of their Sunday sermons, and also not to neglect any opportunity to give their spiritual children a healthy knowledge of God, as St. Paul commanded: "Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching." (2 Tim 4, 2).

Finally, we need to make that word of God to be our daily spiritual bread of our Christian life, preferably thought a family reading of at least a short passage of Sacred Scripture daily. Reading the Word of God and prayerful reflection on it can be easily connected with evening family prayer. This pious practice will undoubtedly make a strong relationship of love between family members and become a powerful means of education and dedication of all its members, and especially - children. I sincerely wish that all the faithful of our Church benefit spiritually from this first year of  the three year preparation for the 1025th anniversary of the Christening of Rus-Ukraine and also, that the Word of God become truly "living and active" (cf. Heb. 4, 12) in our lives.

Dearly Beloved in Christ! During these festive days, when we recall the memory of our Ukrainian saints - St. Volodymyr the Great, blessed Princess Olga, the Saints Boris and Glib, let us pray that the Most Gracious Lord continue to richly fill our Ukrainian land with life-carrying rivers of His words, so that He awakens His faithful servants in our nation - tireless preachers of the Gospel. Then the renewed baptismal vows will be for each of us not just words that we repeat from year to year in a ritual or ceremony, but the solemn manifestation of our fidelity to God in which we entered through our holy Baptism.

The blessing of God upon you!

+ SVIATOSLAV