The Head of the UGCC on ministry in the new conditions: According to the situation we will try to provide the faithful with effective pastoral care

Thursday, 17 December 2020, 15:27

“We encourage people to gather in their parishes according to the established restrictions. Rest assured that your churches will never close before you, and your priests will always be ready to serve you in your spiritual needs,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav during the program “Open Church. Results of the year,” answering the question of journalist Sonia Koshkina about the organization of pastoral work during the pandemic in the new year.

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The Head of the UGCC noted that the experience of strict quarantine only confirmed that the Church could not exist online for a long time.

“One priest compared online service to dry rations. If a person goes on a dry ration forever, he will have serious health problems," he said, adding that the main difficulty of the Church's existence in the virtual world is the inability to administer the Holy Sacraments. And the Church, according to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, cannot cancel the administration of the Holy Saraments.

The Head of the UGCC noted that when the strict quarantine ended, the Church began the process of adapting to new circumstances. On the example of the parish at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in London, the bishop presented one of the ways to serve the Church in new circumstances. According to him, the bishop in London opened all possible spaces there to serve the people. In just one day, on Sunday, twenty-four Divine Liturgies were celebrated, and thus all who wished could participate in them.

"We will always try to do something similar in the new circumstances, that is, we will adapt," said the Father and the Head of the UGCC.

At the same time, His Beatitude Sviatoslav recalled that the Church adheres to quarantine restrictions because "the law is the law." However, he added that the church leadership managed to establish compromise relations with public authorities in Ukraine. "We have agreed that before the new quarantine restrictions are imposed, the state will hold a dialogue with church and religious organizations," he said.

Also, the Head of the Church reiterated the importance of the state guaranteeing people free access to medicines, both medical and spiritual. "The Holy Eucharist," he says, "is called by the Church Fathers a medicine of immortality. Therefore, when there is a danger to human life, there is the greatest need for such a cure."

"I do not know what the circumstances of the celebration of Christmas and Easter next year will be. But I assure you that we will make every effort to provide the most effective pastoral care for our faithful in accordance with the situation," added the Father and Head of the UGCC.

The UGCC Department for Information