Hierarch of Antioch Church: In UOC believers’ eyes, we saw deep faith

Bishop Ephrem, representative of the Patriarchate of Antioch, at a briefing at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: screenshot of the UOC YouTube channel

In the eyes of hundreds of thousands of participants in the cross procession of the UOC in Kyiv, we saw a great deep faith. The secretary of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, Bishop Ephrem of Seleucia, who arrived in Ukraine the day before to participate in the celebrations of the Day of the Baptism of Rus’, said this at a briefing at the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. The video of the briefing was published on the YouTube channel of the UOC.

The representative of the Antioch Patriarchate expressed his joy at being in the fraternal Ukrainian Church.

“I came from the Patriarchate of Antioch, from the historical place where the apostles walked the paths and the roads that we walk today in Damascus <...> which are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures that it was in Antioch that the followers of Christ began to be called Christians for the first time ... With those feelings, we arrived in Ukraine to take part in these events dedicated to the memory of Saint Prince Vladimir, to participate together with our brothers, sisters, with our fraternal Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

But what we saw here yesterday was a special experience for us. We felt love, that we are brothers as if we have known you for many years. But we also saw a great deep faith in the eyes of those hundreds of thousands of people who yesterday participated in the cross procession,” said Bishop Ephrem.

He added that he felt here the wealth of love and faith, and this feeling "we will bring to our home, to our country, to the Patriarchate of Antioch."

“We pray and wish that the Lord would grant Metropolitan Onuphry many years, all his assistants, brother-bishops and all his flock, all our brothers whom we met in Ukraine. I convey greetings from Patriarch John X of Antioch to everyone! Many years!" resumed the representative of the Orthodox Church of Antioch.

As reported earlier, official delegations of Local Churches arrived in Kyiv for the celebrations of the UOC dedicated to the commemoration of Saint Prince Vladimir and the 1033rd anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’.

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