“You willingly emptied yourself for the Church, renouncing every personal interest and devoting yourself entirely to the service of Christ and His flock.
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“Here you received the first degree of the priesthood. Not to be served, but to serve; not to seek human glory, but to shepherd the spiritual flock of the Church of Christ,
“Here you received the first degree of Holy Orders. Not to be served, but to seek human glory, but to shepherd the spiritual flock of Christ’s Church.
“More than forty years ago, I made monastic vows before the Heavenly King, one of which is the renunciation of my own will before the all-holy will of God. Therefore, I regard my election as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine not as a distinction or an honor, but as a solemn obedience to Mother Church, for which I will have to give an account at the dread judgment of God.
“Your Beatitude, adorned with the noble labor of monastic life and wise archpastoral ministry, you are for all of us an example of sincere steadfastness in the Truth.
“through her words, “Let it be to me,” she entrusted herself to the will of God and became a model of faith and devotion.
“in the Church everyone – from the highest hierarchical ministry to the layperson – is united by the love of Christ, and that each person is a bearer of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not dwell in a person automatically but is given in response to a pious life.
“his Church had “diminished itself” by granting autocephaly, only to receive a “cup of ingratitude” in return
“We have been witnesses to your efforts for the unity of the Church, to your labors and struggles. And what we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, we testify to today with gratitude,