Greek Catholics invite to ecumenical prayer

In the Greek Catholic parishes, on the Remembrance Day of victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, memory prayers for the deceased will be held. According to Deacon Ihor Shaban, the head of Commission of the UGCC for assistance of unity between the Christians, it is very important that the society remembers the Ukrainian martyrs and values those gifts which the Lord gives us today. “The memory of events at the level of the Holodomor is a nation creation element, it underlines the fundamental value which unites the society, which connects us with the past, without which the unified state organism can not be formed, not today, not in the future” believes His Beatitude Lubomyr, the head of the UGCC. The Social Days of the UGCC began on October 31, 2009, and were interrupted on November 2 due to flu epidemic. “We interrupted the conduction of Social Days since all mass gatherings were forbidden in the country. Now that the quarantine is over, through our events we will continue to bring social problems to the attention of Ukrainians” remarked Deacon Ihor Shaban. In addition to the prayer for the deceased from the Holodomor, visitations of orphans and nursing homes as well as the showing of the documentary film “Unprofitable Sheptytskyj,” will take place as part of the Social Days of the UGCC.  Also, for the social leaders of the UGCC an experience exchange with other confessions of Ukraine will be organized as part of visiting religious social centres of Kyiv. In Ukraine the Social Week of the UGCC was stared by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyj in 1939. In 2008 the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church revived this tradition, and the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC blessed two commissions for organizing the Social Days of the UGCC: the Ecumenical Commission and the Justice and Peace Commission.

Tetyana Shpaykher