Next Year's Synod of UGCC to Concentrate on Development of UGCC in East of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has great prospects in eastern Ukraine and, therefore, the church should ensure the regular development of its parishes in the region. This opinion was expressed by the head of UGCC Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) on May 16 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk at a meeting with priests of the Donetsk-Kharkiv Exarchate.

According to the Information Department of UGCC, the head of the church said that next year, the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC will be held in Kyiv and its main theme will be the development of the UGCC in the east of Ukraine.

“We must think about the systematic  development of the UGCC in the context of the Church Development Strategy for the period until 2020,” he said.

“The Donetsk-Kharkiv Exarchate is the most developed of all the exarchates of our church. The exarchate has tremendous prospects,” said the patriarch.

Patriarch Sviatoslav noted the importance of the pastoral address to the clergy, monastics and laity of the UGCC  “Living Parish as Place of  Meeting Living Christ.” He stressed that the leadership of the UGCC views “our church in 2020 through the prism of the living parish.” The Primate also said that the Synod of Bishops set up a group of experts led by Bishop Ken Nowakowski of New Westminster, Canada, who will supervise the implementation of the strategy of development of the UGCC.

Patriarch Sviatoslav also paid attention to a special training of seminary students in the missionary spirit. “We do not want to do 'abortions of vocations' today,” he commented on the situation when the local church leaders think there is no need to train new priests if the eparchy has a sufficient number of them.