12.05.2008, [14:30] // UGCC // RISU.ORG.UA
Lviv - "... We, realizing the content and particular value of the act of more than a millennium of antiquity [the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’- editor’s note] should celebrate it annually, and not only with external pomp but also with our daily life. It should not be assumed that it was dirtied with political considerations or calculations. We have to retain it at least on the spiritual and religious level at which the baptism took place 1020 years ago and try from year to year on the basis of what happened to our nation in the days of Prince Saint Volodymyr to make the annual celebration more and more sacred, as befits his real heirs not only in the bodily sense but foremost in the spiritual sense." These words were written by the Head of the UGCC in an address on the occasion of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’. RISU's Ukrainian-language web page posted this story on 9 May, 2008.
In the document which today was promulgated on the official web page of the UGCC, His Beatitude Lubomyr comprehensively analyses the value of the adopting of Christianity both for Kyivan Rus’ and for modern Ukraine. "Often, presenting the historical development of our nation, one can state that it is as if Christianity was the reason for the formation of Kyivan state. Rather the opposite: the already existent Kyivan state became large and strong because it adopted Christianity... We can boldly assert today: Kyivan Rus’, as well as its direct heir, the Ukrainian state, is a European state not only because is situated on this European geographical continent, but mainly because, regardless of Tatar and communist misfortunes, it preserved Christian values which characterize first of all the spiritual and then later political culture of Europe," we read in the address.
Then the Head of the UGCC in the address on the occasion of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’ talks about the importance of celebrating this event. According to the author, the celebration is a good opportunity in order to "present to all those who preserved the memory of Christ only superficially, perhaps even only through some external traditions, Him and His teaching in fullness, to help them again to ‘turn’ for themselves the religious page of human existence."
"Extraordinarily important aspects of the life of our nation, such as public policy, science, art, everything that creates culture, cannot be the only theme of reflections during this jubilee year. The foundation of the celebrations is our religious persuasions, mature, conscious, involved in practical life. If we do not remember this, then all the important aspects of personal, family, public, and especially state life can lose their life-giving value or become the toys of geopolitics," His Beatitude Lubomyr notes.
Information Department of the UGCC