Patriarch John X in a letter to Onophrius…

"On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of your election as Metropolitan of Kiev and Primate of the Sister Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I would like to send Your Beatitude our best and warmest congratulations. I send them in my name, and in the name of my brothers the hierarchs of the Holy Synod of Antioch and all the Antiochian faithful"

Damascus, 16 August 2023

His Beatitude John X Patriarch of Antioch and All the East expressed his best wishes to His Beatitude Onophrius Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. The letter continued

"I thank God on this occasion that He chose Your Beatitude and endowed you with “the wisdom that is from above,” this wisdom that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17). This wisdom that you have is what your blessed Church needs in these difficult times.

This anniversary comes about, while your people are suffering from the scourge of war, and your Church endures “infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, distresses, for Christ’s sake” (2 Corinthians 12:10). We lift up our prayers to “the Lord of peace Himself to give you peace always in every way” (2 Thessalonians 3:16), and in order that God may strengthen you, that nothing separates you from the love of Christ, neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword (Romans 8:35).

May the “God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation” strengthen Your Beatitude and embolden you that you may remain steadfast in the right faith and works. May you “comfort those who are in any trouble” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4), so that their hearts may not be troubled, neither be afraid (John 14:27), because Christ has conquered the world.

Many More Years!".