Pastoral letter of the new Bishops’ Synod

                                to the priests of the UGCC

Dear fellow brothers in the ministry of the Gospel,

we pray for You and believe that You too pray for us, so that we not betray the voice of Christ in our conscience and may help our Lord renew and purify His Mystical Body, the Church. “We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practise cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2Cor 4:2-5)

The salvation of every man depends on a living and true relationship with Christ. If someone has received so-called another Christ and another gospel, one cannot have the faith that saves us, purifies us from every sin and leads to salvation. That is why God’s Word so radically punishes with a curse those who preach another gospel, that means heresies. Unfortunately, today many hierarchs and theologians in the Church preach another gospel, contrary to the one that was preached by the Apostles. These apostates declare the Holy Scripture to be mere legends (theologians of HCT). They declare practically all religions to lead to salvation (hinduism, buddhism etc.) and thus they blaspheme against Christ and His redemptive death on the cross. This syncretism with pagan religions is called New Age, part of which is also occult and magic practices, which, however, cleverly disguise as so-called energies. But in reality it is a service to demons. Cardinal L. Husar has fully opened himself to these things and his programme formulated in the book “Discussions with His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar: On Postconfessional Christianity” is to change over the belief in Christ (Christianity) to so-called postconfessional religion. Here all is one, here is no difference between the Triune God and pagan deities! Here no moral principles apply any more, so that all that is spread in the world be accepted as religious progress and human freedom. L. Husar wants to inject this doctrinal and moral decay even into the Orthodox Church through false unification, and thus to cause self-destruction of Christianity in Ukraine.

Card. L. Husar casts doubt upon the Divinity of Jesus Christ and upon the Virginity of the Mother of God, sympathizes with reincarnation, divines by pendulum, allows homosexuals to live together and calls their sinful relationship love. The only thing he feels sorry about, as he states, is that they cannot have children. It is really a deterrent fact that all bishops of the UGCC take his part and thereby have united with his heresies. They too have thus fallen away from Christ and lost eternal life (cf. Gal 1:9). Dear brothers in priesthood, we know that You have been taken hostage of this situation. However, Card. L. Husar and his apostate synod hold the administrative rule, though the spiritual rule they have lost through their heresies and impenitence. Yet let us be brave and persevere in the true biblical teaching, in faith and in prayer. If any of You has the strength and courage not to mention L. Husar in the Divine Liturgy, let him do so. If he has not, owing to persecution and terror on the part of the apostatic hierarchy, who occupy the episcopates, let him just silently pray with faith during the Liturgy for us (the new Synod). We believe that the resurrection of our Church and then of the Church in the West too will come soon. We shall, for the meantime, try to fight against this system of evil within the Church ourselves and we are convinced that Your prayers will give us strength. We all take this biblical stand: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.” (2Cor 4:7-14)

We are also aware of the fact that most of You do not know us in person and have only one-sided information from those who resist the truth and God’s Spirit. What they speak against us is more often than not half-truths and very often lies uttered with the intention of separating You from us. We are neither excommunicated, as it is being spread by them, nor dismissed from OSBM. Similarly, it is a lie that the Holy Father has not acknowledged us. For the time being, he is still examining the situation, and his silence is tacit consent to who we are and what we do – to the renewal of our UGCC. You will get more information about us and about our life on www.community.org.ua and from those who personally know us from the spiritual retreats and lectures.

We send You our episcopal blessing and pray for You.

In Christ,

the action committee of the new Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC

                                  + Markian Hitiuk OSBM

                                  + Samuel R. Oberhauser

                                  + Metod?j Špi?ík, OSBM

                                  + Eliáš Dohnal, OSBM

                                                                                                                        Pidhirtsi, 1st September 2008

Address: Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC, Pidhirtsi 19, Brody dist., Lvov reg., 80660, Ukraine

www.community.org.ua