On the Laity Day, the UGCC asked the faithful to share their vision of ideal Church, bishops and priests.
This was reported by the UGCC Information Department.
During the online seminar, the head of the UGCC asked the faithful which Church, bishops and priests they dream of, and called on them to "Dream together about our Church in new circumstances. How should our community of faithful Christians look like?"
The online meeting took place on "Live TV" and was conducted via Zoom.
Among the participants were: His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Fr. Vasyl Bilash, Chairman of the UGCC Commission on the Laity, Mr. Yuriy Pidlisny, Head of the Ethics-Politics-Economy Program of UCU, and Fr. Ivan Koltun, pastor of the holiday center in Stradch village, as well as leaders of secular communities and movements of the UGCC.
The head of the UGCC emphasized the importance of analyzing the vocation and mission of a modern layman in our ever-shifting world.
According to him, our task is not to yield to change, but, as Christians of the third millennium, to change ourselves. What the world will be like depends on how we follow Christ. "The special gift and vocation of the laity are to transform the world, time and culture in which the Lord has brought us to be," His Beatitude said.
He also reminded that due to the pandemic, the session of the Patriarchal Council regarding globalization and migration, scheduled for August 2020, was postponed. His Beatitude Sviatoslav calls it a God's sign for us to be more attentive.
Also, in 2020 the Church's strategy "Living Parish is a meeting place with the living Christ" will be completed. "Believe me, none of us could have imagined what 2020 would be like when building our pastoral plans. We had no idea the usual way of bringing the Church together would change so drastically in the time of quarantine. Today we need to think about the Church we want to have in 2030. The first steps of our dream for the next ten years led us to the following idea: we can dream of the Church in 2030 only together with the laity. Because you are the addressees of our pastoral service and the crucial element of the church community," the Head of the Church emphasized.
"Today's seminar," His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes, "is an excellent opportunity to hear the dreams of our faithful about their Church."
"I can testify that in Italy, our Church was founded, nurtured and built by our laity. The women who came to work there wanted to have their own Church, so they formed communities which created an exarchate for Ukrainians in Italy," he added.
Today I shall address priests with the following words: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Holy Spirit speaks through the laity."
