UGCC extends fraternal condolences to clerics and laity of UOC-MP

5 July 2014

On behalf of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Patriarch Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) extended his condolences to the UOC-MP in connection with the departure into eternity of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan). This was stated in the following letter from the Head of the UGCC.

It is with a great sadness that we learnt the news that His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv reposed in the Lord. 

With Metropolitan Volodymyr’s departure for eternity, we, all Ukrainian society and all Christians, regardless of denominational affiliation, experience a great loss. His Beatitude Volodymyr will forever stay in our memory as a man of deep prayer and true religious asceticism, as a profound theologian and a wise pastor, a spiritual father and moral authority of our time. 

His Beatitude Volodymyr, inspired by the Holy Spirit, understood the importance and urgency of fraternal unity and seeking ways to the unity of Churches of St. Vladimir's baptism. In this he was for many years ahead of modernity and will remain a spiritual guide to his followers in the future. 

In this sad moment, on behalf of its plenitude the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church expresses brotherly compassion of the episcopate, clergy, religious and faithful to all the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and we unite with you in prayer for the eternal rest of the deceased. 

Today His Beatitude Volodymyr is standing before the throne of the Most High Lord, and prays for his dear Ukraine and speaks to us with the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing" (II Tim. 4, 7-8).

UGCC extends fraternal condolences to clerics and laity of UOC-MP