On September 14, 2021, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine performed a prayer service in St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral ahead of the meeting of Ukrainian chaplains.
Metropolitan Ioan of Cherkasy and Chyhyryn (Yaremenko) and military chaplains from different parts of Ukraine assisted the head of the OCU. Chaplains of other denominations and a number of lawmakers also prayed at the service.
This was reported by the OCU press service.
At the end of the service, the head of the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church addressed the audience.
“Today we gathered in the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, to start a good cause. Today, you, chaplain fathers, have gathered in the capital to undergo training, learn something good and useful, which you will implement in your future practice, spiritually caring for our servicemen, our border guards, who protect our territorial integrity, remaining on guard of our peace. It is symbolic that on the day of Indiction, we offer a prayer and ask God for a blessing – fo the coming year, for the work we will do during the following days of our lives. For the Lord gives each of us time as a gift that we must use to inherit eternal blissful life. Because here, being in the flesh, in this temporary life, each of us chooses the eternity in which they will be. Therefore, using our time, we must do good, do works of mercy, and maintain the Law of God. We, the clergy, have an even greater responsibility: to teach, to preach, to take spiritual care of people, especially our servicemen, who are now defending our borders there, on the front line,” the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine stressed.
“The Lord said, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ Today we also offer a prayer and ‘knock’ on the door of our legislature, so that the relevant bill on military chaplaincy be adopted at second reading. I believe and hope that by the Day of Intercession, when we honor our servicemen and all those who fought for independence, we will receive the gift we have been dreaming of for several years, almost from the onset of this terrible war. Therefore, I urge all of you to continue praying. For the Lord hears all our prayers and performs them for good,” Metropolitan Epifaniy summed up.
The meeting of chaplains will last until September 17 inclusive. The event will include lectures and round tables, which also engage representatives of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, clerics of other denominations and religions, as well as psychologists.
