UGCC Head suggests creation of state educational program for Ukrainians from all over the world
Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Sviatoslav came up with an initiative to create a state educational program on history and culture for Ukrainians from all over the world.
The first heirarch said this at a meeting with teachers of the Ukrainian school in Philadelphia, the Department of Information of the UGCC reports.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav took an example of the state of Israel which has a special state program according to which every Jewish person can come to Israel at public expense for a monthly educational course in history and culture to establish emotional contact with his/her Motherland.
“This is a state policy funded by the state of Israel. This is one of the ways in which Israel encourages Jews to return to their historic homeland,” the head of the UGCC said.
The Primate recalled his recent visit to Jerusalem during the Great Lent that he made jointly with the representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.
“I was flying from Kyiv to Tel Aviv. A large group of young Jewish descendants from Kharkiv were also on the same flight. A young girl said in a conversation with others, “How long I was waiting for the chance to finally go there. Now I will know who I am,” she said.
“I would like our country to have a similar program. Every young man and young woman from any Ukrainian community in the world would feel it their duty, and the state would help them, to come to a one-month course to Ukraine to discover their roots,” the Primate stressed.
Patriarch Sviatoslav recalled the first time the descendants from ethnic Ukrainian communities in Argentina arrived in Ukraine.
"You can not imagine what was going on with people, with their hearts, with their imagination, when they really could touch their roots because if people do not visit the Museum of the Holodomor and do not realize that the land on which they step is soaked with blood, any stories of genocide and mass starvation will only remain stories,” the Head of the UGCC stressed.
