Epiphany of Kyiv to Ecumenical Patriarch: "You are a powerful instrument in the hands of God"translated

His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Mr. Epiphanios, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his election.  The Primate of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine notes that His Holiness, for three and a half decades, has been performing his patriarchal ministry for the good of the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople and for Orthodox Christians throughout the world, which constitutes the longest period of patriarchal ministry in the entire history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

"However, your worthy ministry on the patriarchal throne is characterized not only by its duration, but mainly by great works and persistent work," he says.

On the occasion of the special anniversary, Metropolitan Mr. Epifanios expresses his thanks, again and again, for the courage and strength of spirit of the Ecumenical Patriarch in the fatal issue of healing the wounds of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical body and granting the Volume of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

"I believe that both now and in the future, the…