Synod of Bishops UGCC dedicated to a prayer started its work in Lviv

Tuesday, 05 September 2017, 22:11
September 3, 2017 in Lviv at St. George Cathedral the Synod of Bishops of UGCC started its work with a Divine Liturgy led by Father and Head of UGCC His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

Upon enquiry of Head of Church, the Secretary of the Synod bishop Bohdan Dziurakh announced a decree about holding a regular session of the Synod of Bishops of UGCC. According to the Decree, the Synod will take place in Lviv (Briukhovychi) from September 3 till September 12, 2017. The main issue of the Synod – “Liturgical and prayer life of UGCC”. All bishops are welcomed to participate in the Synod, who, with the power of Church law and their vow have an obligation to take part in it.

During a homily to the faithful, His Beatitude Sviatoslav while speaking about the beginning of the Synod, mentioned that there were present bishops from all over the world. “Synod is the special moment, a special event in our Church. Probably God wants to tell us that our aim as bishops must be primarily ministering as servants of God who care for God’s people. We are called to look after our own souls and souls of those who have been entrusted us, in order to bring God His fruits”.

“We remain, - His Beatitude Sviatoslav continued, - in special relationships with our Heavenly Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And those special relationships we express in the main topic of our Synod. The Son talks to his Father in the Holy Spirit, what is the inner life of the Blessed Trinity. The Son of God declared this conversation as a prayer in his embodiment”.

As it was already mentioned the main issue of the Synod is going to be about a prayer. “We want to ask our Divine Teacher as His apostles did it before: Master, teach us to pray. We want to understand how our Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is praying today. What we ought to do to become teachers and disciples of a real prayer, how we should care for a prayer life of our Church, since we know that a person who doesn’t breathe is dead; a Christian soul that doesn’t pray is dying, and the Church which is not a congregation of those who pray, unfortunately, becomes motionless”, Head of Church assures.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav called to ask the Heavenly Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,who care for our Church, to fill us with the power of prayer, so every son and daughter of our Church might always feel and understand that their Church, first of all, pray for them. And this is one of the most principal ways of how to look after Christ’s vineyard today. “Let this time of synodal meetings be the time of grace and renewal. Breathe deeply with a prayer. I am asking the whole body of our Church: pray for our Synod and its activity within these ten days. So, we, as Church that prays, might serve God and our people in Ukraine properly”, the major Archbishop asked.

Apostolic nuncio of Ukraine Claudio Gugerotti who also prayed with Head of Church and the members of the Synod of Bishops, sent his greetings and blessings. “… It is extremely important, - Archbishop Claudio said, - that these prayer and Eucharist open the solemn Synod. At this moment, there cannot be a lack of that loving and blessing presence of Pope Francis. He is sending an abundance of his blessings. Pope Francis is aware of special love which bonds him with Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, - Church that testified with the martyrs’ blood its faithfulness to the holy Church. The sincerest wishes of a good work to all synodal priests”.

The UGCC Department for Information 

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