Bishop Hlib Lonchyna - new Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainian Faithful of Byzantine Rite in Great Britain.

On Tuesday, 14 June 2011 the Holy See reported that the Holy Father Benedict XVI, having taken into consideration the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, appointed Most Rev. Bishop Hlib (Lonchyna) M. S. U. Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainian Faithful of Byzantine Rite in Great Britain. Prior to this appointment, Bishop Hlib was Apostolic Administrator “sede vacante” of the Apostolic Exarchate in Great Britain.   Bishop Hlib Lonchyna was born on 23 February 1954, in the town of Steubenville, Ohio (USA), into a Ukrainian family. He studied theology at Rome's Urbaniana University (license degree in biblical theology) and defended a doctorate in liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute.   In 1975 he joined the Ukrainian Monastery of Studite monks in Grottaferrata near Rome in which he took his vows on 19 December 1976. He was ordained a priest by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj on 3 July 1977, in the same monastery. For a few years he ministered in the USA. In 1994 he moved with the monastic community to Ukraine. He was a chaplain at Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv. He taught liturgy and biblical studies at Holy Spirit Seminary, the Lviv Theological Academy, the Institute of Higher Religious Culture, and also at catechetical courses.   On 11 January 2002, he was nominated Auxiliary Bishop of Lviv and received hierarchical ordination in the Cathedral of Saint George’s in Lviv on 27 February 2002. On 14 January 2003 he was named Apostolic Visitator for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics in Italy. From 25 March 2003, to 9 May 2006, he was the Apokrisarius-procurator of the Major Archbishop of the UGCC at the Holy See. On 4 March 2004, by a decree of His Holiness John Paul II, Bishop Hlib was named Apostolic Visitator for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics in Spain and Ireland.   On 2 June 2009, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Hlib Apostolic Administrator “sede vacante” of the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainian Faithful of Byzantine Rite in Great Britain. The Apostolic Exarchate was erected on 10 June 1957 for the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in England and Wales and was extended to the whole of Great Britain on 12 May 1968. It is the only Eastern Rite Catholic structure in the United Kingdom.   After the materials of Radio Vaticana