While reviling other Orthodox Christians...
24.08.2005 (RISU.org)
Kharkiv– A memorial tablet to Patriarch Josyf (Slipyj), head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) from 1944 to 1984, was blessed in northeastern Ukrainian Kharkiv on 17 August 2005. Clergy and faithful of the UGCC were joined in the event by members of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).
At the initiative of Vladislav Pronenko, a Kharkiv scholar and RISU correspondent, and funded by the World Congress of Ukrainians, the memorial tablet was placed on the building of the former transit prison in Kharkiv (on Malynovskoho Street, 5) where Patriarch Josyf was held.
The tablet was made according to a sketch of Valerii Bondar, a Kharkiv artist. Askold Lozynskyj, president of the World Congress of Ukrainians, and Vasyl Tretetskyi, deputy head of the Kharkiv Regional Administration, unveiled the tablet. The tablet was blessed by Fr. Mykola Semenovych and Fr. Onufrii Ripetskyi of the UGCC, as well as Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko), Fr. Vitalii Zubak and Fr. Oleh Kozub of the UAOC.
In his sermon, Archbishop Ihor mentioned the respect the late Patriarch Dymytrii of the UAOC had for Patriarch Josyf. He added: “It is not state officials who lead us to true Christian union but godly men, whose prayers are united before the throne of God.”
Source: Press Center of the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy of the UAOC