UCC Bishops hold the Synod online

This is reported by the press service of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC.

The meeting was attended by 46 bishops from Ukraine and settlements — Poland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia. The globality of the Church was felt even chronologically, because, while in Kyiv time zone the working meetings began at 4:00 p.m., in Winnipeg (Canada) it was only 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. in Buenos Aires (Argentina), and in distant Australian Melbourne it was already late at night — 11:00 p.m.

Results of the semi-annual activity of synodal meetings

Starting the working Synodal Sessions, Patriarch Sviatoslav of the UGCC noted that the current meeting is the result of a prolonged synodal activity that our Church started six months ago due to the quarantine restrictions in effect throughout the world. As part of this activity, the Primate held several cycles of regional meetings with the Synod fathers, during which the bishops discussed the issue of pastoral service in quarantine, as well as discussed pastoral planning for the near and long term. Separate regional meetings of the bishops were devoted to liturgical, canonical and financial matters. This intensive synodal work was completed by the current session of the Synod of Bishops, during which the episcopate made several important pastoral and canonical decisions.

New documents adopted by the Synod

In particular, the bishops approved the methodology for conducting an audit of legal proceedings in the UGCC to improve the activities of Diocesan courts, adopted regulations on visiting the seminary in the UGCC, and also approved two instructions developed by the Theological Department of the Patriarchal Curia aimed at further streamlining book publishing in the UGCC.

Reports of the UGCC funds

Members of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC paid particular attention to the approval of reports of the Patriarchal Curia on the whole and of the individual church-wide funds, such as "Andrew's Pence" Fund, which provided support to victims of the pandemic, floods in the Carpathian region and other categories of needy persons in Ukraine, as well as the Mission fund, which is designed to promote the development of the UGCC's missionary spirit and mission activities.

Catechism of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for Young People

A special spiritual fruit of the current Synod of Bishops was the blessing to proclaim and publish the new Catechism of the UGCC for Young People. Several working groups of theologians, catechists, youth pastors and representatives of the youth themselves worked on the Catechism. The Head of the UGCC expressed his heartfelt gratitude to His Eminence David Motyuk, Chairman of the Patriarchal Catechetical Commission responsible for implementing this important pastoral project. The Catechism is written as a pilgrimage of young people accompanied by a pastor to the main shrines of our Church and has an eloquent title "We walk with Christ". The Synodal fathers not only recommended to proclaim the Catechism but also instructed the patriarchal catechetical Commission to take care of the translation of this manual into foreign languages.

Congratulations to this year's jubilees

At the end of the Synodal session, the head of the UGCC, according to the established synodal tradition, congratulated the current anniversaries on the occasion of their next birthday anniversaries, anniversaries of ordinations to priesthood or episcopal consecration. Thus, the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh, on behalf of all members of the Synod, congratulated the Primate on his golden jubilee, which His Beatitude Sviatoslav celebrated on May 5. A musical gift for all the current anniversaries was a video with photos of the bishops and a regular multi-year performance performed by students of the College of St. Josaphat in Rome and the Men's Choir and Chapel of Bandurists from Canada and the United States of America.

The bishops ended this year's Synod of Bishops of the UGCC with a joint prayer to the Mother of God, entrusting each other, their faithful, clergy, monasticism and the entire Ukrainian people under the care of the Mother of God of Tireless Help and all the saints and the righteous of the Ukrainian land.