All UGCC churches will thank God for the Gift of Baptism

“It became a fine tradition that every year on the Feast of Saint, Equal to the Apostles, Great King Volodymyr  in remembering the Baptism of our ancestors in the Dnipro waters, we hold Pontifical Liturgies and the Rite of the Renewal of Baptism Vows,” wrote His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), UGCC Head, in a letter to Greek-Catholic pastors on the occasion of  the Feast of Saint  Equal to the Apostles King, Volodymyr, the Baptizer of Rus-Ukraine. In the letter UGCC Primate urges priests on  28 July 2012 to  preach a celebratory sermon or cathechism lesson and  after the Divine Liturgy to hold for the parishioners the Rite of the Renewal of Baptism Vows.  “In such a way we hope above all to express our gratitude to the Heavenly Father for “the great Gift of Baptism”  by which our people were blessed and which in time we ourselves received in the Holy Church,” notes UGCC Primate.  His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes that in such a manner we express our readiness to follow the path of Evangelical truth and love towards the fullness of holiness in Jesus. “May the light of Christ’s Gospel which illuminated our people and each one of us in Holy Baptism, become the directive of our Christian life,” with this greeting UGCC Primate ended his letter to the Greek-Catholic pastors. As noted before, 2012 is the second year of preparation for the 1025^th Jubilee Anniversary of the  Baptism of Rus-Ukraine that Christians of the former Kyiv Metropolitanate, which today is  sub-divided into four traditional Ukrainian Churches (UGCC, UOC, UOC-KP and UAOC), will celebrate next year. The tradition to hold the Rite of the Renewal of Baptism Vows on the Feast of the celebration of  Volodymyr’s Baptism was begun after the Synod of UGCC Bishops in 2006.  

UGCC Department of Information