The Head of UGCC led a prayer for Christian Unity

During the service His Beatitude Svyatoslav, the Head of UGCC, His Beatitude Lyubomyr (Gusar), Archbishop Emeritus, Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson,  Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Stanislaw Shyrokoradyuk, Bishop of Kyiv- Zhytomyr Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, the bishops and clergy of the Orthodox and Protestant Churches .

Sermon was preached by His Beatitude Lyubomyr (Gusar). Addressing the audience, he said: "Dear in Christ congregation of the church, guests, Dear in Christ brothers and sisters. On behalf of the owner of this house, on behalf of the Commission for Unity UGCC I sincerely wish to congratulate all of you and thank you for your gracious presence in this prayer meeting. The topic you have chosen this year for these prayer meetings is taken from the letter of Pavlo to the Corinthians: "Is Christ divided?"  I ask Fr. Igor to read the text containing these words. "

Then Fr. Igor Shaban, the head of the Commission for Christian Unity, read the words of the Apostle Pavlo.

"Brethren, I beseech you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should tell the same thing, that there should be no divisions among you, and that you should be united with the same spirit and with one mind. I learned about you, my brethren, from Chloe's people that there is a dispute between you. Now I say that each of you says, "I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ." Is Christ divided? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. I baptized also the house of Stefan, and I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. But Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with the wisdom of word in order not to make the cross of Christ unsuccessful. For the preaching of the cross - is foolishness to those who perish, but for us, who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: "I destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing clever mind of the clever! Where is the wise? Where the educated? Where is the researcher of this age? "Wasn’t it God who made the wisdom of this world to be foolish? And if  the fact that the world did not get to know God with its wisdom in God's wisdom, then it pleased God to save believers with the foolishness of preaching . When Jews demand signs and Greeks seek for wisdom - we preach Christ crucified: a reproach to Jews and folly to Gentiles, and to those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks - Christ the power and wisdom of God. "

After reading words of Scripture His Beatitude Lyubomyr said: " This letter, in fact, is written to us, because, unfortunately, we are also divided. We now, dear in Christ, gathered here in order not to study the writing and the circumstances, in which the Apostle Pavlo wrote, but to pray. We gathered to pray, not to seek human wisdom, not to justify our mistakes, the sins, our division, causing all sorts of human reasoning, not to justify ourselves, but having rejected all human wisdom, the so-called wisdom, we came together to give Jesus Christ crucified to give us the grace to unite in him . "

UGCC Department of Information