"Not in Ukraine again": the Permanent Synod of the UGCC will meet in Australia

The Permanent Synod of the UGCC will for the first time hold its working sessions in Australia. A delegation of bishops headed by Sviatoslav Shevchuk will gather in Melbourne to discuss pastoral issues, analyze the current situation in Ukraine and hold a number of meetings with the Ukrainian community, as well as with religious and political figures in the country.

According to the Secretariat of the Synod of the UGCC, the working sessions of the Synod will be chaired by the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk. The key topic on the agenda will be preparations for the future Synod of the UGCC on the theme “Pastoring vocations to the priesthood and monasticism”. Special attention will be paid to meetings with representatives of the Australian authorities and Catholic clergy. Negotiations are planned with the President of the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops Timothy Costello, Apostolic Nuncio Charles Balvo, Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia Vasyl Miroshnichenko, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Australia Richard Marles and other dignitaries. The main purpose of these meetings is to bring awareness of the current situation in Ukraine and the suffering of the Ukrainian people due to the Russian invasion.

“This is a chance to present the life of our Australian-Ukrainian community in the context of the global Church, to demonstrate our faithfulness and unity, to receive spiritual encouragement and inspiration,” said Bishop Nicholas Bychok of Melbourne, urging the faithful to actively participate in the upcoming events.

Earlier we reported that one of the previous meetings of the Synod of the UGCC was held in Washington, DC. It is worth noting that in the summer of 2005 the UGCC officially moved its center from Lviv to the capital of Ukraine – Kiev. Since then the center of the confession is considered to be Kiev, and the “patriarchal cathedra” is Kiev’s Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. Why the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church holds synod meetings in the United States and Canada, so far from Ukraine, is unknown.