The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy, on Saturday, June 17, arrived on a consecration visit to the Rivne Diocese.
The head of the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church was met and congratulated on Rivne land by Metropolitan Hilarion of Rivne and Ostroh and the clergy from the diocese, reports the press service of the OCU.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine visited Military Unit A2755 in Dubno and together with the servicemen prayed for the victory of Ukraine.
Together with the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Rivne and Ostroh, Archbishop Matviy of Volodymyr and Novovolynsk, Archpriest Vasyl Lozynsky, clergy from the Rivne Diocese, and local officials also prayed.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy, having raised a prayer to God, addressed military heroes with the First Consecration Word.
“Today we offer our prayer to God. We raise it so that the Lord will grant us victory. The victory that you and I all dream of, the victory that we choose, because we are fighting for our freedom. We are fighting to have our own independent Ukrainian state, to have our own Ukrainian Church. Because without a strong united Ukrainian Church, we will never build a strong European democratic Ukraine,” Metropolitan Epifaniy emphasized.
“We are called to preserve that great gift of freedom and independence, multiply, confirm and pass it on to the next generations. Now we pay a very high cost for it. After all, our best heroes, best sons and daughters sacrifice their lives for this priceless gift. Because the gift of freedom, the gift of free will is truly priceless. And that is why we are fighting, knowing our objective Ukrainian history with you.
May the Lord protect each of you, our modern-day heroes – military servicemen – in this difficult time. Because for us, you are the heroes, regardless of whether this title was awarded to you by the government, whether you have a star or not – it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you really have great respect, we pray for you every day,” concluded Metropolitan Epifaniy.
Also, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine bestowed the Order of St. Arch-Strategist Michael II degree on the military unit commander, Oleksandr Tomashevskyi. and the medals of St. Yuriy the Victorious to a number of servicemen, Ukraine’s modern-day heroes.
The event ended with the charter prayer.
