Pentecostal pastoral letter to the faithful of the UGCC

Dear priests and faithful,

Jesus said: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) To be witnesses to Christ, we need to receive in fullness the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, and to renounce the spirit of lie and the spirit of the world. How shall this be? The Holy Scripture points out two concrete means which are related to the Pentecost, namely prayer and conversion.

The Apostles had been praying for 9 days and on the 10th day the Holy Spirit descended upon them. The weak apostles became heroes of faith!

Conversion – after the Apostle Peter delivered a sermon to 3 000 people, they asked him: “What shall we do?” Peter said to them: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) They obeyed, repented, were baptized and received the Holy Spirit on the same day.

And what are we to do? The Apostle Peter says: “The promise is even to all who are afar off (in the future)”, so to us as well. When the Apostles received the Holy Spirit, they preached neither Kant’s philosophy nor various psychologies nor historic-critical methods nor regard for the surrounding pagan religions. The Apostles preached repentance for the remission of sins. They witnessed that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead. God Himself confirmed their gospel with many miracles. Nowadays the Church is paralyzed by various spiritual streams which lead away from the substance, the foundation, which is our salvation in Jesus Christ through repentance. What is preached is worldly theories connected with heresies. Therefore the Church is neither the light nor the salt nor the leaven. There is just one solution to this crisis: through genuine repentance to return to the sources of our faith.

A campaign for homosexual marriages has already been started in Ukraine.

The first to serve it was the journal “Express” (7th-14th May). On 15th May a group of homosexuals went out into the streets in the centre of Lvov. This campaign is strongly supported from abroad. We have written a letter to the Ukrainian MPs in order to show them the Christian view of this issue and asked them to stop this campaign in time. Unless one reacts promptly, within half a year the mass media will change the public opinion so much that this perverted law of homosexual marriages will be easily moved through the legislature. In the Czech Republic this law was passed three years ago and moral devastation, now already protected by the state laws, continues.

What about Ukraine? The Lord said: “See, I have set before you this day life and death, blessing and curse! Therefore choose!” (Deut 30:19) Mass spread of homosexuality will carry along self-destruction of both the individual and society and call down God’s punishment. The fire which came down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah was a warning for all generations to come. The root of homosexuality is connected with pride and idolatry: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Rom 1:22-23) Idolatry is tied up with magic and divination. The Holy Scripture clearly shows the association between punishment and its cause by using the word “therefore”: “Therefore God gave them up to dishonorable passions (because they opened up to idolatry – divination). Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their perversity.” (Rom 1:26-27)

Several weeks ago diviners were legalized in Ukraine. It is not MPs who are to blame for it but the paralyzed Church which opened up to divination – to the sin against the First Commandment. What is the attitude of the Holy Scripture? Even though the woman diviner in Philippi gave true publicity to the Apostle Paul, he turned and said to the spirit: “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And at that moment the evil spirit left her (see Acts 16:18-19). To the diviner who influenced the proconsul of the island of Cyprus, St. Paul said: “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10)

According to the Law of Moses a man or woman who had a spirit of divination in them were to be stoned to death (see Lev 20:27). It may seem to be cruel; however, how many suicides and murders or other crimes and misfortunes these servants of the devil have on their conscience! And what a great curse comes upon the whole territory through their “service”! In Ukraine they have their advertisements in all newspapers every day. Who is to blame? The paralyzed Church which is silent on the sin of divination, does not preach the full Gospel and does not emphasize repentance and true conversion. There are many forms through which the spirit of divination manifests itself. One of these forms is divination by pendulum.

Dear fathers, dear believers, it is painful and downright terrible to realize that our UGCC cannot repent and cannot preach the full Gospel because her paralyzed head – Card. L. Husar – does not allow it. What repentance, what conversion, what full Gospel, if he himself divines by pendulum?! In the book “Discussions with His Beatitude L. Husar: On Postconfessional Christianity” Card. Husar literally says: “One day someone presented me with a pendulum. It is an instrument which allows me to learn whether certain medical preparations are good for my health. It is a mere wave swinging the pendulum to one or the other side.” (The fruit is spiritual as well as physical blindness of Card. Husar!)

He himself also propagates homosexuality and states in the same book: “They can live together if they insist on it. ... Of course, they can perform sexual activity of whatever kind but their love will always remain unfruitful.”

How can our UGCC preach the Gospel in fullness if, besides these heresies, Card. L. Husar even casts doubt upon the Divinity of Christ, says that the Virgin Mary is a common woman and compares her to a demonic woman from the Upanishads?! How can we preach the Gospel if he casts doubt upon the eternity of hell?! Our orthodox Catholic Synod made it public before the Pope and before the whole Church that Card. L. Husar preaches heresies and therefore both he and his Synod incur the punishment of God’s anathema. If the new Synod was not established, the whole of our UGCC, which under the leadership of Card. L. Husar has already set a pattern and given her blessing to all diviners and, likewise, approved of homosexual activity and of the cohabitation of homosexuals, would by now have fallen under God’s anathema. How can MPs defend the family against disintegration if the heretical structure of the Church proclaims a new gospel and new morals which are contrary to the Holy Scripture and Tradition of the Apostles?! Noone can be saved on false foundations! Instead of a blessing and spiritual awakening a curse and punishment will come. The Church which was to set up a barrier and to protect the faithful has instead become a vent allowing space for heresies, divination, homosexuality and other destructive influences which come upon the nation. That was why God gave the means to establish the orthodox Catholic Synod of Bishops which preaches Christ’s Gospel in power and is completely separated from the heretical spirit which is behind the official structure.

In the present time a very hard spiritual battle is going on for total dechristianization of Europe. The European Union promotes perverted laws which, in fact, deny the essence of Christianity. The nations that passed laws of homosexual marriages seem to have gone blind and without any resistance submitted to the dictates of the European Union. They signed judgement of death over the true Christianity on their territory. The main blame lies with the apostatic Church which has the spirit of the world and conforms to this trend or often even challenges to it. It hypocritically shelters itself behind the supreme authority which, however, we truly exposed as an antipapal structure which leads to the self-destruction of the Church and papacy. Therefore we called upon all bishops of the Catholic Church to send their confession of faith and renouncement of heresies to the Pope by 14th September 2009 and to publish it before their subordinates. We likewise sent our appeal to Ireland which is to determine by referendum whether the so-called Lisbon Treaty will be ratified or rejected for all EU states. We appealed to the Irish TDs and senators as well as to the bishops of the Irish nation to defend God’s laws and to stand against the powerful of this world. Our appeal was especially that from these days forward until the referendum (October 2009) they should call upon God day and night for a miracle similar to the one He made in the time of king Jehoshaphat or king Hezekiah (cf. 2Chron 20:1-24; Isa 36-37).

A similar prayer initiative in smaller measure – represented by several prayer groups – has been burning like a spiritual fire for more than five years here in Ukraine. Would that this small fire flamed up these days and grew into a great fire through which the Holy Spirit will kindle our whole Church and all Ukraine! It is God alone who can solve the serious situation in our Church. God can grant spiritual resurrection even to our nation. In order to be able to receive this fire of the Holy Spirit into our hearts like the Apostles we need to prepare by prayer and true conversion.

We hereby beseech all priests to announce in their parishes the need of continual prayer and to enable the faithful to make a net of prayer-guards who will pray continually – day and night.

What is the prayer intention?

1)      the internal revival of our Church;

2)      the cessation of the medial campaign for homosexuality;

3)      the spiritual resurrection of all Ukraine.

This initiative will begin on the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) – 7th June 2009 – and end on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God – 14th October 2009 (dates according to the Julian calendar). The parish that will join this prayer initiative will thus manifest its willingness to repent in earnest and to stand before God’s face and call upon Him sincerely, that the Spirit of God may breathe a new life into the whole parish, into our Church and into the entire nation. We recommend that the believers keep the fast on Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and water if possible. One prayer-group is comprised of 24 people. Each member has his one-hour prayer-guard. In order that all hours in the month may be filled, each prayer-group is on guard for 10 days a month. The first group prays from 1st to 10th day of the month, the second one from the 11th to 20th and the third one from the 20th to 30th (31st) day of the month. Besides, it is recommended that all members of the prayer-groups pray the so-called holy hour every day from 2000 to 2100. We want to ask the priests to send their blessing to the four cardinal points at 2100 to all Ukraine and particularly to the members of all prayer-groups from the place where they will be at that time. It would be ideal if the parish had three prayer-groups, i.e. 3×24=72 people. If the parish is small, it can join with the neighbouring one. What should they pray? It is recommended to pray the Rosary or other common Church prayers or songs.

Jesus Himself assures us in the Gospel that the Heavenly Father will hear those who cry out day and night to Him (cf. Lk 18:7-8).

In this hard time, when the being or not being of each nation is being determined, God puts their fate in the hands of those who are praying. Therefore we call upon You by this pastoral letter to realize Your responsibility for our Church and for the Ukrainian nation.

Praying for You and asking for Your prayer,

bishops of the orthodox Catholic Synod of the UGCC

                                                  + Samuel OSBM

                                                  + Markian OSBM

                                                  + Metod?j OSBM

                                                  + Eliáš OSBM

                                                                                                                                               Pidhirtsi, 23rd May 2009

Copies to:

-         The Holy Father Benedict XVI

-         Members of the Ukrainian Parliament

Address: Pidhirtsi 19, Brody dist., Lvov reg., 80660, Ukraine

www.community.org.ua; e-mail address: pidhirci.community@gmail.com