His Holiness Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria congratulates Primate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church on his Name Day

On 25^th June 2019, during the celebrations marking the Name Day of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, a message of greetings from the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was read out. The text of the message is given below:

Your Beatitude,

Beloved Brother in the Lord and Concelebrant:

The radiant feast of heavenly glorification and the Church’s commemoration of your remarkable heavenly patron, St. Onuphrius the Great – glorious in piety, monastic deeds and in the gaining of  virtues – this year gives us an opportunity to send you our personal cordial fraternal wishes, and those of the entire Bulgarian Orthodox Church of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, of good health, fortitude, bodily and spiritual strength, patience, love and care for the flock entrusted to you, as well as of the God-blessed success in your archpastoral service to the Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

May the All-Generous and All-Merciful God grant unto you His Divine grace in abundance, so that you, strengthened by it, may continue to carefully and zealously steer the ship of the Ukrainian Church through calm waters into the haven of salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ “who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet 1:3).

The days and years, during which, according to the Divine economia and gracious providence, you have been holding the helm of church vessel in the brotherly Ukraine, are critical for both the Church in Ukraine and the entire holy and salvific Orthodoxy. These are the days of test for our Christian and pastoral conscience; the days requiring spiritual discernment and test of the spirits, “to see whether they are of God” (1 Jn 4:1). We believe that with God’s help and with the love of all your brothers, with cooperation and constant support from the hierarchs, faithful to their archpastoral vocation and responsibility, you will continue to successfully develop the Church, which the Lord Himself entrusted, first of all, to us, bishops as successors of His holy apostles, who were first to sow throughout the world the seeds of glad tidings and new hope for humanity and reconciliation with heavens.

May in this toilsome ministry there always be with you our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the prayers and heavenly intercession of His Most Holy Mother and our Lady Theotokos, St. Onuphrius the Great and all the saints pleasing unto God, as well as the prayers and support of your brothers and of every Orthodox heart aching for the unity of the Church and its success in the mission of salvation. We believe that, illumined and guided by the Most Holy Divine Spirit Who is always present in the Holy Church of Christ, we, through our common prayers and efforts, will continue to develop together the Body of Christ “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

May God’s all-forgiving love and mercy, and communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of us!

Greetings!

Many and good years!

With brotherly love in Christ,

+NEOPHYTE

Patriarch of Bulgaria