Department of External Relations of the UGCC in Ukraine presented at meeting of the heads of commissions of the UGCC

The meeting of the heads of commissions of the UGCC was held on September 15 in Lviv. “We are very glad that in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church there are people who have the proper training and excel in their work,” said Bishop Ihor (Voznyak), Archbishop of Lviv.

At the beginning of the meeting Bishop Ihor read two decrees from Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar). The first concerned the recognition of Fr. Mikhail Garvat as the head of the newly created Metropolitan Catechetical Commission. The second document presented the new head of the Commission on Matters of Monasticism Fr. Petro Barana. A new format for planning the activity of the church’s commissions started with the beginning of church year. Intensity and function are the basic characteristics which will determine the style of their work. First of all the meetings of the heads of the commissions of the UGCC will become monthly. To improve the management and to improve effectiveness of the annual plan of activity is the goal of each of the commissions. “It will help to see the beginning, the development, and the completion of the process of work, and also factors which promote or hinder it,” considers the head of Department of the Church’s Commissions of UGCC Fr. Petro Rak.  Tetyana Stavnycha, head of the Department of Development of the Patriarchal Curia, presented the result of the meetings with the representatives of organizations Renovabis and “Church in need” and invited those present to further cooperation. The newly created structures of the Patriarchal Curia, which will help better coordinate activity of separate subsections at the level of state and interdenominational relations in Ukraine, were presented at the meeting. The priest Oleksa Petriv represented the Department of External Relations of the UGCC in Ukraine. The department includes the Division of Relations with State Authorities (head is Fr. Roman Nebozhuk), the Division on Social Questions (head is Fr. Andrey Nagirnyak), the Division of Interdenominational Relations, and the Division of relations with the public. The direct task of the Department of External Relations is to realize and to develop the activity of the UGCC in the area of cooperation with the state authority and relations with different denominations, churches, religious organizations in Ukraine, and institutions of civil society. Heads of the commissions of the UGCC at patriarchal and metropolitan levels representing the church in wide circles of the society exchanged information and worked out plans for the future.  The meeting was completed with a joint prayer.

Information Department UGCC informed by Sister Bonifatia Diakiv