“May Hagia Sophia continue to serve love, peace and good for all people,
no matter what religion or nation they belong to”
On
July 4, 2020, during the sermon at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, His
Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, expressed support for the position of the Ecumenical Patriarch on the
issue of Hagia Sophia and called to pray for the Mother Church.
“Today
I would like to urge everyone to offer a prayer for our Mother Church of
Constantinople and personally for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,” His Beatitude said. “Because many of you
probably know that in Turkey there is a debate about the possibility of
changing the status of Hagia Sophia, which for almost a century is open to
people of all views and faiths as a place of becoming familiar with sacred
history and beauty, acting as a secular museum. This status was defined by the
founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first President, Atatürk, and we
share the views and concerns of His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
on the possible implications of revising this decision.”
The
Primate emphasized the special role of the cathedral in the history of
Christianity adoption in Rus’-Ukraine during the reign of St. Prince Volodymyr
of Kyiv: “St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople is a special place for the
Ukrainian people, because, according to the chronicle, it was the exact place,
where the ambassadors of our Grand Prince Volodymyr during the service felt the
divine presence”. The Metropolitan also quoted an excerpt from the
chronicle with their testimony: “We did not know, whether we were in heaven
or on earth. Because there is no such spectacle or such beauty on earth – we
can’t even say [about it] ”.
“So
may the Lord direct everything for the greater good, so that Hagia Sophia may
continue to serve love, peace and good for all people, no matter what religion
or nation they belong to,”
the Primate of the OCU concluded.
Press
Service of Kyiv Metropolitanate
of
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU)
Source: pomisna.info
