To the Synod of Bishops
of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Your Eminences and Your Graces!
Dear Fathers, Brothers & Sisters!

It is with great sorrow that I learned of the repose of our dear and beloved brother, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion.

On behalf of the entirety of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and myself personally, I express heartfelt condolences to the hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and all faithful children of the Russian Church Abroad for the loss that has befallen you.

Metropolitan Hilarion, whom I knew personally, was an outstanding hierarch. He fully and completely devoted himself to serving the Church. His Eminence of blessed repose fulfilled his lofty archpastoral service by combining wisdom and firm leadership for the flock entrusted to him with personal humility and meekness. Over the course of his spiritual path, Metropolitan Hilarion obtained the gifts of the Holy Spirit, becoming for the faithful an example “in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (I Timothy 4:12), to which the universal love for him bears witness.

During this Paschal season, we lift our prayers to our Risen Lord Jesus Christ for the newly reposed hierarch of God, that the Savior receive His faithful servant in the Heavenly mansions, where there is no pain, no sorrow, nor sighing, but eternal joy and life everlasting.

Eternal and blessed memory to our dear and beloved brother, Metropolitan Hilarion!

+ONUFRY
Metropolitan of Kiev & All Ukraine
Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

May 17, 2022