Agreement signed in Odesa about pastoral cooperation in military chaplaincy

In Odesa, on October 14, 2010, on the Feast of Intercession, an agreement about pastoral collaboration in military chaplaincy between the Curia of the Odesa-Crimean Exarchate of the UGCC and the Center of Military Chaplaincy of the Curia of the Lviv Archeparchy of UGCC was signed. Present at the meeting were Bishop Vasyl (Ivasyuk), exarch of Odesa-Crimea, Fr. Stephan Sus, head of the Center of Military Chaplaincy, and Fr. Oleksandr Smerechynskiy, military chaplain of the exarchate (Odesa). According to this agreement, by the end of 2012 the Center of Military Chaplaincy of the Curia of the Lviv Archeparchy of the UGCC will help the exarchate develop its own structure of military chaplaincy. Every year more and more servicemen who consider themselves believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and are serving in the Naval Forces of Ukraine, internal troops, and the renewed Odesa military institute and Academy of VMS (MNF) of Ukraine, which is on the territory of the exarchate, express a desire to meet with Greek Catholic military chaplains. “Considering that the Institute of Military Chaplaincy is developing actively in the UGCC, we can not ignore those servicemen who want to have a military chaplain constantly present. The Center of Military Chaplaincy has good experience in military ministry, so we hope that with the help of their chaplains and joint work we will make good and fruitful steps in developing military chaplaincy in the Odesa-Crimean Exarchate,” stated Bishop Vasyl.

Press center of the Center of Military Chaplaincy