Metropolitan of Kyiv: Our history is closely linked to history of Greeks

Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine sent a message about the 200 years of the Greek War of Independence to the Greeks and the Orthodox Churches that follow the Greek traditions.

The Metropolitan of Ukraine stated on social media that the Greek War of Independence was the beginning of the great path followed by other Balkan peoples towards freedom.

He also referred to the special role that the Orthodox Church played, which “maintained the spiritual, national and cultural identity of the Greeks both in their homeland and in the wider region where they have settled since ancient times.”

He also praised the close spiritual and cultural relations between Ukraine and the Greek world.

“Since ancient times, the history of our people is closely linked to the history of the Greeks who had already founded a number of cities in the territory of present-day Ukraine, on the northern shores of the Black Sea. In one of the cities, in the Tauric Peninsula, the sermon for the Lord Jesus Christ was preached for the first time to our people by his first disciple the Apostle Andrew. From the Roman Empire to the Mother Church of Constantinople, our ancestors were baptised and taught the Gospel. This began in the 860s, as Patriarch Photios testifies, and ended in 988 with the ‘Baptism’ of Kyiv and All Rus under St. Vladimir the Great.

Despite the fact that in 1686 Moscow forcibly and fraudulently detached the Metropolis of Kyiv from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we never forgot the truth. Truth prevailed in our time thanks to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Mother Church of Constantinople, which signed the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

We are happy and grateful that the Pope and Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa, Archbishop Chrysostomos and All Cyprus and the Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece together with the local Churches were the first to show brotherly love for the Church of Ukraine and for the Ukrainian Orthodox people and supported us.

We congratulate you, dear sisters and brothers! May God bless you to keep carrying on your work!”