"Metropolitan Andrey -- the precursor of the Second Vatican Council and the current ecumenical movement..." UGCC Head

Sunday, 28 December 2014, 14:59

Metropolitan Andrey talks to people through his whole life. For us he is a pastor, a theologian, an educator, a preacher, one who blesses, a builder, a philantropist, a diplomat, and a holy teacher of faith. The list of all he has done, will never be exhausted.

See also:

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Head of the UGCC: Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was a conscious patriot of the Ukrainian people

In his Pastoral Epistle "May God's wisdom lead us all", UGCC Head, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, writes on the occasion of the Year devoted to the memory of Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptytsky). As is known, according to the decision of UGCC Synod of Bishops, November 1, 2014 began the year of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. This years marks two anniversary dates: "70 years since the death of the Metropolitan, which has already been commemorated by the Church, and the 150th anniversary of his birth, which we are getting ready to commemorate."

According to UGCC Prelate, Metropolitan Andrey is an example for all clergy, -- an example of how one can faithfully and generously serve the people of God: "He not only led the Church -- he widened the whole Christian civilization, bringing Christian values into such social spheres as education, scholarship, art, health care, law, etc. And everywhere he truly acted as a servant of God."

As the Church Head writes in the Epistle, Sheptytsky reformed the liturgical life of the parish communities, with the assstance of his younger brother, Blessed Archmandrite Clement; renewed monastic life according to the ancient Studite rules, founded the eastern branch of the Redemptorists and several other western congregations and new female communities of spiritual life of apostolic dimensions.

The basic concept of UGCC development in the time of Sheptytsky was the issue of a single Kyivan Patriarchate. "The model of church unity, in which there would be acknowledged the leadership of Peter's successor, was for Metropolitan Andrey a guarantee of the faithfulness to Christ's will and

Evangelical teachings, and simultaneously -- a key to the freedom of the Church from the excessive intrusion of government authorities, which more than once in history transformed itself into the subordination of the Church to political goals," stated His Beatitude Sviatoslav, adding that Metropolitan Andrey believed that God gave the Ukrainian people a special mission in this case. Therefore, due to his unifying efforts, Bishop Andrey is perceived "truly as a pre-cursor of the Second Vatican Council and the current ecumenical movement, especially in the realm of Orthodox-Catholic relations."

UGCC Department of Information