Your Eminence, Metropolitan Constantine of Irenopolis,
Your Eminence, Archbishop Antony of Ierapolis,
Your Graces, beloved brothers all and co-celebrants,
Beloved children in the Lord,

Slava Isusu Christou!
Glory and thanksgiving to our God, Who is worshipped in Holy Trinity!  For He is our Father and the Creator of us all, and has granted us, by His ineffable goodness, to arrive in your midst, the faithful Children of Ukraine, and of our Ecumenical Throne. 
Here, in this magnificent Church of the First-Called Apostle Andrew, we celebrate the unity and the ancient bond between the Ukrainian People and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.  We celebrate the glorious history that began with the Saints Wolodomir and Olha, who brought the light of Christ from the Mother Church to your ancestors.
From Aghia Sophia, the Great Church of Christ, to Saint Sophia of Kiev, we behold the witness of this bond of love and unity.  From the countless monasteries, churches, and shrines, the most famous being the Lavra of the Holy Caves in Kiev, whose glorious founders are Saints Antony and Theodosios, we behold the proof and manifestation of your depth of spirituality and commitment to the Gospel.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine abounds with countless martyrs, bishops, priests, monks, nuns and pious believers.  In the crown of world-wide Orthodoxy, the wealth of vocations to the priesthood is a shining jewel.  The monastic witness of Ukraine is testimony to all Orthodox Christians, that the light of faith burns brightly amidst the golden fields, which lie peacefully beneath the brilliant blue canopy of heaven.
Ukraine has been called for generations, “the Breadbasket of Europe,” but you have provided much more than material needs for the human family.  Your land has shone with religious leaders, lay leaders, and cultural giants; chief among them, the poet laureate of Ukraine, Taras Sevchenko, who captured the spiritual genius of your people.
But above all, you have followed Christ, with fidelity, piety, and abiding love.  Many times in your long history, you have been called to carry the Cross of our Lord.  You have suffered injustice, famine and numerous wars, but you have endured.  And you have done more than simply endure, because your presence in this continent bears witness to spreading the Gospel of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Your faith has gone out to all the world.  This center here in South Boundbrook is another manifestation of the grace of God in the life of the Ukrainian people.  You have built churches, schools, institutions of philanthropy and culture.  You minister to your own brothers and sisters from every region of your motherland, and to the society at large.  The Ukrainian people participate at every level of American society, making progressive and constructive contributions to the greater good of this Nation.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate takes great paternal pride in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America.  And our Modesty wishes you to know, that because we are one body in Christ, that we recognize the sorrowful situation which has been created in your motherland.  We shall work continuously with all our efforts and all our love to make a new situation, which will bring about unity to the already torn body of the Orthodox Church there.  But our concern is not just for the here and now.  It takes time for certain ideas to become accepted.  Premature discussions work only to make more obstacles and impediments to achieving a God-pleasing end result.  Only one thing can be said:  that our own pain and grief are great, because all of us belong to the One Body of the Lord, the single and unified Orthodox Church.  We feel deeply the pain of local Orthodox Church as our own pain, for we know, as the Apostle says, “when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (I Cor. 12:26).  And so, as we suffer with you, we shall also work with you to heal the causes of this pain.  We live in the ontological truth of the united Body of Christ.  We respond to the pain and grief in one member as our own pain, because it is our own pain.
The feeling by every Christian of his unity and identity with his brother, as a member of the one Body of the Church, is the presupposition of salvation.  The restoration of our communion with God is based on the communion of the Divine Persons of our God Who is the Holy Trinity.  This feeling is of unity, of joint salvation, of a common future, of shared goals.  It is the life of the Church.  Individual salvation, apart from one another, is not attainable, for it is really not salvation at all.
We, who are the faithful, must be distinguished from the rest of humanity by our basic desire to imitate Christ.   Even when we suffer unjustly, we must pray for our enemies and overcome evil by goodness.  If this is the way we must act towards those outside the Church, how much more ought we towards our brethren who are of the Church, who by human weakness, bad judgment, or the jealousy of the devil grieve us.  They too have received the word of God as a guide to living their faith and we all have the common elemental basis — the commandments of God — unto which we all aspire to be conformed.
Therefore we have hope that by the grace of God, we shall find acceptable and joint solutions to those issues which divide us.  We will work all the more to find the means of reconciliation and agreement.  This requires great patience, because as much as we desire our brother to see the same solutions that we see, the heart must mature so we may be guided to the correct solution for all.  We hope that, by God’s grace, we may work as peacemakers.
Let us glorify God, for He has already done everything for our salvation.  Let us glorify Him for His infinite patience and long-suffering.  Let us pray to Him, that He may grant the restoration of peace in the Church and in the local Church of your native country, a way which will give peace to the hearts of all.  Unite your prayers and work together so that a spiritual solution is found.  The embrace of God encompasses everyone and the touch of God is able to find an answer for every circumstance.  Whoever wants to experience that embrace must first be willing to embrace his fellow man, even his enemy.  God does not work His wonders without love and His love for us is infinite.
Let us go forward with our countenances shining with joy and our hearts filled with love by His Holy Spirit, and let us continually beseech and work for the peace that we long for.
May His grace which brings peace be with you all.
Zbohom.