This is reported by the OCU press service.
The full text of the greeting is as follows:
Most Holy Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch, in Christ God very dear and desirable brother and co-servant of our humility, Bishop Bartholomew, We embrace Your Holiness in the Lord and sincerely and joyfully congratulate you.
From the bottom of my loving heart, on the day of the holy apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas, when Your Holiness celebrates his name day, through this letter and through our authorized representative, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Yevstratiy of Bila Tserkva, I ask you to accept greetings from me personally and from the entirety of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In the person of Your Holiness, the Orthodox Church has a worthy Ecumenical Patriarch – the first among the Orthodox hierarchs, a pious servant of God, head of the apostolic throne of the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople – New Rome, a teacher of the faith, a father and shepherd, a defender of the canonical order, a preacher of the Gospel of Christ and the Orthodox Tradition. In the stormy sea of modern times, among the challenges that constantly arise before the Church, You, Your Holiness, wisely guide the ship entrusted to You by God, navigating it to a quiet harbor and safe waters.
At a time when our Ukrainian people and we, as the Church of Ukraine, are going through terrible trials due to the war brought to our peaceful land by Russian aggressors, your support and that of the Mother Church of Constantinople is especially valuable, which is manifested through prayer for Ukraine, through humanitarian and material assistance to the victims, through testifying the truth to the world and publicly exposing and condemning the evil and unholy theory of the “Russian world”.
Your Holiness!
Greeting you with love on the occasion of your name day, we wish you many blessed years of service to God and His Holy Church, good health, success in your work for the development of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Orthodoxy and all of Christianity. Invariably and always, we offer our prayers for you and ask for your holy prayers for the speedy victory of truth and a just peace for Ukraine.
Many and happy summers to you, Your Holiness!
With love in Christ, your brother –
Epifaniy,
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine
Kyiv,
June 11, 2023
