Patriarch Lubomyr welcomes migrants home

Patriarch Lubomyr attended the first meeting of Ukrainian migrants, which took place on December 31 in Kyiv. As SoborNews reports, the meeting was organized by the Pastoral and Missionary Department of the UGCC. Migrants who have returned to Ukraine as well as their relatives and friends have thanked God for a happy life in the past year. "Let’s thank God that you were able to return and that you are home. To stand on native land, to speak the native language is good fortune. Let’s thank God and pray for those who are still away from home," the head of the UGCC said to the participants. He also mentioned that many workers, including his relatives, were forcedly deported from Ukraine. Patriarch Lubomyr said that the Church organizes many activities abroad so that migrants can lead a proper life and so their rights are protected. "We are also working so that those who return to Ukraine have a better life. I would like to express my gratitude to the Pastoral and Missionary Department, which does so much in this," said the head of the UGCC. Executive Secretary of the Pastoral and Missionary Department Fr. Vasyl Potoczniak said that the meeting was attended by migrants from the Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Donetsk, and Kyiv oblasts. The meeting began with a Hierarchal Divine Liturgy in the St. Vasyl the Great Church, which was led by the head of the administration of the Patriarchal Curia, Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh). During the sermon the bishop noted that Christ himself was a migrant and immigrant. Later the migrants met with the Patriarch Lubomyr. Then the participants met in groups where they discussed how to protect a Ukrainian family. The meeting ended with a New Year’s celebration.

For the Information Department of the UGCC reported Tetiana Shpaykher