Father Andriy Buhvak told our correspondent in Zaporizhya Olena Piddubna: “We are starting to work on the project design. This is a big job, but very happy for us.”
On June 30, the session of Zaporizhya City Council adopted a decision – the Greek Catholic parish of St. Michael the Archangel was allocated a land plot for the construction of the temple. The believers waited for this decisionfor 18 years.
The draft decision says: “Allow the parish of St. Michael the Archangel of the Greek Catholic Church in Zaporizhya to develop a land use design for allotment of a land plot atMetallurgists avenue.
As reported, the Greek Catholic community of Zaporizhya can gather in a single small chapel on the territory of one of the villages in the city boundaries. In fact, this house in the private sector is far from public transport.
The new site with an area of 1.2 hectares, located in the park near the Palace of Culture of Zaporizhya aluminum plant. The park is large, but disordered. This place is located at the major traffic junction of the city,a stop of numerous public transport routes is located nearby.
As announced on June 16, Head of UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav made his first historical visit to Zaporizhya. The trip was part of a one-day visit of the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin to the launch of humanitarian action “Pope for Ukraine.”On that day Zaporizhya residents welcomed the Head of the Church with bread and salt, and gave a Cossack mace as a gift.
The patriarch promised to come on official visit to draw to the attention of local authorities to the outstanding needs of the community, including the issue of allocation of land for the construction of the temple.
Greek Catholics of Zaporizhya are known for many good deeds. The Charitable Foundation “Caritas-Zaporizhya”is functioning, which runs educational courses, women and girls who prepare food for soldiers at the frontline gather there weekly. Nuns of the Order of St. Basil also work here. The parish also takes care of the only children bandura-player capella of Zaporizhya.