The Decisions of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church 2019

Wednesday, 25 September 2019, 11:30

See also:

Pastoral Letter of the 2022 Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to the Clergy, Monastics and Laity of the UGCC and to All People of Good Will
His Beatitude Sviatoslav thanks the faithful worldwide for praying for the Synod
The Synod of Bishops of the UGCC ended with a prayer for Ukraine

Prot. ВА 19/250

To the Glory of the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-creating and Undivided Trinity,
Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit,
And for the Good of the People of God entrusted to us. Amen.

BY DIVINE MERCY
AND IN FULL COMMUNION
WITH THE ROMAN APOSTOLIC SEE

SVIATOSLAV,

Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych of the
Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

To the Most Reverend Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops
The Reverend Clergy, Venerable Monks and Sisters,
And to the Lay Faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

I PROCLAIM AND PROMULGATE

The Decisions of the
Synod of Bishops of the
Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church
Rome, September 1-10, 2019

To take into consideration the status of implementation of Decisions of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC of 2018.
To receive the Activity Report of the Patriarchal Curia for the past year.
To take into consideration Summary Reports of patriarchal level commissions and departments for the past year.
To receive the Activity report of the Working Group for the Implementation of Strategic Development in the UGCC till 2020 (August 2018 – July 2019).
To end the mandate of the Working Group for the Implementation of Strategic Development in the UGCC till 2020.
To express gratitude and recognition to the members of the Working Group for the Implementation of Strategic Development in the UGCC till 2020 for their conscientious work.
Modelling ourselves on the first Christian community of Christ’s disciples in Jerusalem, of which is said: “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32), and with demonstrating due care to fostering and strengthening the internal unity of the UGCC:

1) To call upon the clergy, religious and laity in the daily church life and ministry to foster a culture of mutual support and relations with one another, including active usage of contemporary means of social communication.

2) To create a Synodal group for the development of a UGCC pastoral strategy till 2030 with the following members: Metr. Borys Gudziak, Metr. Egeniusz Popowycz, Bishops David Motiuk, Ken Nowakiwski, Teodor Martyniuk, Daniel Kozlinsky, Bohdan Dziurakh.

3) To develop solidarity and exchange of gifts between parishes and eparchies of Ukraine and outside its borders for the purpose of mutual relations, ministry and witness.

4) To support lay movements that desire to build up the unity of the Church, her particular character (pomisnist’) and patriarchal structure.

5) To establish on the occasion of the feast of St. Andrew the First-called a Day of Church-wide Prayer for the Father and Head of the UGCC and for special situations in our Church.

6) To ask the Father and Head of the Church to hold conferences with bishops in the metropolias.

7) To ask the metropolitans:

To strengthen the spiritual unity in prayer of the metropolias through pastoral visits of bishops and eparchies within their metropolias;
To convoke bishops of the metropolia for Metropolitan Synods or Bishops’ conferences;
To organize common pilgrimages in the metropolias.

8) To ask the eparchial bishops:

To broadly inform the clergy, religious and laity of the eparchy on the legislative acts of the regular Synod of Bishops and engage the proper mechanisms for implementing them in the life of the local Church;
To establish in the work schedule of their eparchial curias a monthly day of spiritual renewal, prayer and vigils for a common listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and common prayers for the intention of the Bishop, Eparchial initiatives and pastoral challenges;
To personally participate in eparchial formation conferences and encounters of clergy and various lay groups in order to foster unity within the local Church under the leadership of the eparchial Bishop;
To develop and implement an eparchial pastoral plan;
To facilitate the domicile presence of pastors on the territory of the parish;
To create, where this has not been done, an eparchial pastoral council (see CCEO, can. 272-275) with the involvement of active and responsible laity;
To create, where this has not been done, an eparchial council for religious communities active on the territory of the Eparchy for deeper communion with religious life communities;
To convoke Eparchial Assemblies (sobors) in order to promote a deeper consciousness and the practice of common action at the eparchial level.

9) To entrust the clergy:

To guard the internal unity and family spirit of the parish community, notably through daily celebration of the Divine Liturgy, the establishment of communities for the prayerful reading of the Word of God and other fraternities/sororities and prayer movements, as well as through the development of charitable ministry in the parish community;
To move towards the celebration of the Mysteries of Christian Initiation and the Sacrament-Mystery of Crowning during Sunday or festive Divine Liturgy with the participation of the parish community as prescribed in liturgical books;
To foster unity between parishes and the eparchial clergy, so that no parish community separate itself from the communion.

10) To entrust the Information Department of the Patriarchal Curia:

To provide for the development of churchwide media resources and means of social communication between the eparchies and metropolias in various languages;
To complete the creation of a UGCC multilingual information agency in cooperation with the eparchial bishops.

11) To entrust the Ukrainian Catholic University and other intellectual centers, both in Ukraine and beyond its borders, with developing academic research and theological conceptualization of particularity (pomisnist’) and the patriarchal structure of the UGCC.

12) To entrust the Ukrainian Catholic University’s Institute of Church History with researching, fostering and promoting the memory of the martyrs and confessors of faith of the XX century in cooperation with qualified academic institutions in Ukraine and beyond its borders.

To take into consideration the report of His Excellency Bishop Dionisio Lakhovicz regarding pastoral and social ministry to Ukrainian migrants in Italy.
To take into consideration the report of the International Charitable Foundation “Caritas Ukraine” regarding social assistance to victims of the war in Ukraine.
To receive the report of the General Director of the Administration of Justice regarding the status of the judiciary in the UGCC.
To entrust the canonical department of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC to draft an Instruction for Clergy residing outside the territory of their eparchy.
To take into consideration the work status report of the Synodal Commission on the Ukrainian translation of Liturgikon of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
To confirm for a three-year trial period with additions the Menologion of the UGCC.
To approve as a model standard the Statutes of an Eparchial Liturgical Commission of the UGCC.
To appoint His Excellency Bishop Hlib Lonchyna Head of the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission of the UGCC.
To consent to the continuation of His Excellency Bohdan Danylo in the office of Head of the Commission for Clergy.
To take into consideration the work status of the UGCC Youth Catechism.
To approve the Statutes of the VII Session of the Patriarchal Assembly (Sobor) of the UGCC.
To create a Working Group to develop a draft of Regulations for the Patriarchal Assembly (Sobor) consisting of the following members: His Excellency Bishop Yaroslav Pryriz, Fr. Roman Shafran and Fr. Oleh Kaskiv.
To submit to the Holy Father a request that St. Pope John Paul II be proclaimed patron of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.
To approve the text of the Post synodal Pastoral Letter on the main theme.
To receive the Pastoral Letter of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of 2019 to the clergy, religious and laity regarding the protection of children, minors and vulnerable persons from all forms of abuse.
To hold the next session of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC on August 30 – September 8 2020 in Lviv.
To establish the main theme of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2020: “Emigration, settlement and the global unity of the UGCC.”
To entrust His Excellency Bishop Teodor Martyniuk with preparing and presenting the Main theme of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2020.
To approve the Communique of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of 2019.