Prot. 173/2011D Damascus,
23/3/2011
Greetings
of H. B. Gregorios III
Patriarch
of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
for
the enthronement of the new Major Archbishop
of
Kyiv-Halyč of
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
H.B.
Sviatoslav (Shevchuk)
(Kyiv
27 March 2011)
Your Beatitude, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč of
Ukraine!
Blessed be the new Pastor whom the Holy Spirit has
given to the Church of Christ in this holy land of Ukraine!
Dear brother, Sviatoslav, I have the joy and honour of
offering you, Your Beatitude, my fraternal good wishes on the occasion of your consecration
as Major Archbishop, Head and Father of the beloved sister Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church.
I offer you these good wishes in my own name and in that
of the Holy Synod of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch and All the
East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem. With me on this auspicious occasion, are two
bishops from our Holy Synod (Archbishop Michael Abras and Metropolitan Emeritus
John Haddad) and our Patriarchate’s Economos General, the Secretary of the
Liturgical Commission, Rev. Fr. Elias Shatawi.
Today these greetings and good wishes reach you,
through us, from Jerusalem, the Mother Church of all Churches, and from the
Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ was born and from the Middle East, cradle
of Christianity.
I greet you in the name of the Church of the East,
Church of the Arabs, and in the name of my colleagues, the Patriarchs of the Eastern
Churches, who constitute the Council of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs.
Personally, I am very happy at how the ecclesial,
brotherly communion between our two (Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Melkite Greek
Catholic) Churches has developed, largely due to a long-standing friendship (of
more than twenty years) with our dear brother and friend, His Most Eminent Beatitude
Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, that great hero of the Christian East, its tradition, heritage
and ecumenical mission! He will always be known as a Father of this Church of
yours and a great defender of the ecumenical mission of the Eastern Catholic
Churches, that are in full communion with the Church of Rome that presides in
charity and with the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, (who showed his love for the Christian
East by holding the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of
Bishops), while remaining faithful to the Eastern tradition and maintaining
cordial relations with the Orthodox Churches that are our sisters, ever present
in all ecumenical work.
We have come to strengthen our brotherly communion
with this Church that we love and respect, through you, dear brother, Your
Beatitude, Sviatoslav! I think that the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are both called to play a very significant role
in ecumenical work, since they are the two largest Churches of the Byzantine
rite (Greek and Slavonic) in communion with Rome.
We shall remain in contact with each other, since we
ought to integrate our efforts for that greatest service to the Church and to
the world, which is to realise Christ’s prayer, “That they may be one...that
the world may believe.”
Axios! Eis polla eti, Sevasmiotate! Makariotate, mnohaya lita!
Gregorios III
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
Of
Alexandria and of Jerusalem
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