Patriarch Filaret Presents ‘Ukrainian Palinodia’ at Lviv Book Forum

On September 13 at the 20th Lviv Book Forum, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) presented its publishing project “Ukrainian Palinodia.” The event, which took place in the reading room of the Academic Library of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, was led by Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) along with other hierarchs of the Kyivan Patriarchate.

The publishing the project “Ukrainian Palinodia” is a Ukrainian translation of the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church: John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, liturgical books and statute books. Scholars from the UOC-KP worked on this project for several years

As the speakers noted, the presentation of “Ukrainian Palinodia” is the culmination of the work of many people, and the fruit of their labor will have a positive impact on the development of Ukrainian theology and pastoral practice of many priests.

Addressing the audience, Patriarch Filaret said that a few years ago in Ukraine there was an acute shortage in theological books in the Ukrainian language. There were only a few, but the quality of their translations did not withstand criticism.

“There was only the Bible in Ukrainian, and a prayer book in Old Slavonic with a Ukrainian accent. And that was all that was in Ukrainian! Nothing more was in Ukrainian!” he said.

The leadership of the Kyivan Patriarchate thus set out to do everything possible to ensure that each parish had the necessary literature. And so, step by step, new translations began to appear.

“When I was elected patriarch, I came to the conclusion that there would be no Ukrainian Church if Ukraine was not the liturgical language. It would be the same Russian Church. But there were no liturgical books. So the first thing we started to do was translate,” said the head of the UOC-KP.

“Now our church provides liturgical literature in the Ukrainian language throughout Ukraine,” concluded the hierarch.