I just finished talking to our seminarians — we have seven of them from Ukraine that reside in the seminary (in the U.S.). They’re telling me their parents are afraid to go outside. Bombs are being thrown. Aircrafts are flying. Explosions are everywhere. My mother lives in western Ukraine, and she says that today, she wasn’t able to buy bread. The pharmacies are empty. People standing in lines, people trying to get as close as they can to the Polish border.
I understand you spoke with Metropolitan Epiphanius of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine a few hours after the invasion started. How is he and what did he say to you?
I reached out to him via mobile devices and tried to see how things are in Ukraine. My message did not get to him until about 4 in the morning today. I received a phone call back from him and, then, later I spoke to him for the second time. He is at St. Michael’s Cathedral, in his offices. He told me he’s in good health. He’s standing with bishops, clergy and faithful military chaplains of Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He is not planning to leave Ukraine. He said he is the spiritual father of the people of Ukraine and he must be with his flock, with his people.
So he’s staying in Kyiv, and I encourage everybody to offer their prayers for the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Orthodox Christians worldwide are on the verge of entering the most holy of seasons: Great and Holy Lent. What is your message to Ukrainian Americans here in the United States, and to Ukrainian Orthodox Christians worldwide?
The sacred season of Great Lent is one of my favorite spiritual journeys that I always take very seriously. As Ukrainian Americans, we have a blessed opportunity right now to practice truly the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian when he talks about humility, when he talks about sacrifice, when he talks about looking at our own sinfulness and repenting over our personal transgressions and coming unto the Lord and asking for protection and for the renewal that we need. I am dropping, with my people of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, onto my knees, in that humble prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian, asking God to have mercy over the people of Ukraine. Soldiers, military generals, right now they have these powerful weapons — they have nuclear power, tanks and what have you. But as Christians, as people of faith, we also have a weapon in our hands — and that’s a prayer.
I’m asking people of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Catholic Church and people of goodwill regardless of background to use the weapon of prayer, to soften the heart of the aggressor against Ukrainian people, and to stop the crimes against humanity that we’re experiencing.
Many Americans would be surprised to learn Russia and Ukraine are predominantly self-identified Orthodox Christian countries. Would it be fair to characterize this as a religious war with Orthodox Christians killing Orthodox Christians?
I think the president of Russian Federation is making it a religious war. The responsibility is on him and his soul.
Look, major saints of the Slavic Orthodox Church — and I’m talking about Ukrainian Russian Orthodox Church and Serbian, what have you — a lot of them are of Ukrainian descent. Ukraine has produced the fathers of Orthodox Church that have served in Russia, Serbia, Moldova, Romania, in other parts of the world, including Middle East and in Jerusalem. Ukrainians have contributed to the fabric — into the mosaic — of the spiritual entity of who we are as Orthodox Christians.
