The decree of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC

Prot. N. ВА 20/110 ENG

DECREE

To the glory of the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-Giving, and Undivided Trinity,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

HIS BEATITUDE

SVIATOSLAV,

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

MAJOR ARCHBISHOP OF KYIV AND HALYCH,

FATHER AND HEAD OF THE UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH

TO OUR BELOVED BROTHER IN CHRIST

Most Reverend Bishop

Kenneth Anthony Adam Nowakowski

PEACE BE TO YOU, IN THE LORD!

The origins of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Great Britain can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. The earliest significant group of Ukrainian immigrants who settled in Manchester between the 1890s and the outbreak of the First World War were mainly Byzantine Catholics. They first attended worship at Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Church and later joined the parish of Saint Casimir, which was established in 1904 to serve primarily Polish and Lithuanian immigrants in Manchester. After the closure of this parish in 1931, Saint Chad’s once more became the primary place of worship for Mancunian Ukrainians. Since 1932, the Reverend Father Louis van den Bossche, a Byzantine Catholic priest from Belgium, visited the Church of Saint Chad several times a year to celebrate the Divine Liturgy for the Ukrainian congregation. After his death, these visits were continued by Reverend Father Jacques Perridon from France (1938–1939 and 1944–1947).

In the period between the First and Second World Wars, apostolic visitations of Great Britain were made by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (1921), Bishop Nicholas Charnetsky, Apostolic Visitator of Ukrainian Catholics in Poland outside Galicia (1932 and 1937), and the Reverend Father Josyf Slipyj, Rector of the Greek Catholic Theological Academy in Lviv (1935).

The process of organizing the Ukrainian Catholic Church (UCC) in the United Kingdom began during the large influx of Ukrainians into the country in the immediate postwar years. In November 1946, Bishop Ivan Buchko, residing in Rome, was appointed Apostolic Visitator with personal jurisdiction over Ukrainian Catholics throughout Western Europe.

The Church in the United Kingdom was initially referred to the jurisdiction of its Vicar General (Synchellus) for France, Father Perridon. In February 1947, the Reverend Father Josaphat Jean, a French-Canadian priest of the UCC, was appointed parish priest in London and later became Dean of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Mission in the United Kingdom. In March 1949, Bishop Ivan Buchko created a separate Vicariate General for England and Scotland and appointed Reverend Father Volodymyr Malanchuk as the first Vicar General of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United Kingdom. In January 1951, he was succeeded by the Reverend Father Alexander Malynowskyj.

On 10 June 1957, the Holy See issued a Papal decree establishing an Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainian Catholics in England and Wales. William Godfrey, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, was appointed its first Exarch, but the Exarchate was governed by his Vicar General: first, by the Reverend Father Alexander Malynowskyj, then, after his death in November 1957, by the Reverend Father Paul Maluga from Canada. In August 1961, the first Ukrainian Catholic bishop in the United Kingdom, Augustine Horniak, was appointed Auxilliary Bishop to the Exarch, and in April 1963, after the death of Archbishop William Cardinal Godfrey, he was appointed Exarch.

By a decree of 5 March 1967, the jurisdiction of the Exarchate was extended to include Scotland and was renamed the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainian Catholics in the United Kingdom. In September 1987, Bishop Augustine Horniak resigned and Bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn, Apostolic Exarch of France, was appointed administrator of the Exarchate in the United Kingdom. The new Exarch in the United Kingdom, Bishop Michael Kuchmiak, was appointed in June 1989. He remained in this position until his retirement in April 2002, and was replaced by Bishop Paul Chomnycky. In January 2006, Bishop Paul Chomnycky became Bishop of the Eparchy of Stamford in the United States of America. Due to the vacancy of the Exarch’s throne in the United Kingdom, the Reverend Father Bohdan Lysykanych became the Administrator of the Exarchate.

In June 2009, our dear brother Bishop Hlib Lonchyna became the Administrator of the Exarchate in the United Kingdom. And in June 2011, he was appointed Exarch. In January 2013, the Exarchate was elevated to the level of an Eparchy, with the name «Eparchy of the Holy Family in London», and Bishop Hlib Lonchyna was appointed the first ruling bishop. In December 2014, following the death of the Apostolic Visitator to Belarussian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite outside of Belarus, the Belarussian Byzantine Catholic Mission in the United Kingdom was attached to the UCC Eparchy of London. Furthermore, in 2017, the Slovakian and Hungarian Missions were placed under the omophorion of Bishop Hlib.

Last year, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, accepted the resignation of Bishop Hlib Lonchyna from pastoral governance of the Eparchy of the Holy Family in London. For many years, Bishop Hlib served as faithful guardian of the people of God entrusted to him, enjoying the respect of the clergy, monastics, and laity.

Considering the spiritual needs of the faithful of our Church in the United Kingdom and the vacancy of this eparchial throne, the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC has chosen you, Bishop Kenneth, to rule as the Eparchial Bishop of the Eparchy of the Holy Family in London, and communicated this decision to the Roman Pontiff.  His Holiness, Pope Francis, welcomed this choice, blessed it, and named you to this office, transferring you from the Eparchy of New Westminster in Canada.

The announcement of this decision was made public on 15 January 2020.

To the glory of God and for the salvation of the God-loving people, by the authority given to us, in accordance with can. 81 and can. 86, § 2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, we

PRESENT AND PROCLAIM YOU

Bishop of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Holy Family

with its See in London.

Dear Bishop!

We urge you, in accordance with the instruction of the Apostle to the Gentiles, to be «blameless, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled, holding firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it» (Titus 1:7-9).

You should carry out your episcopal ministry in accordance with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches and the Canons of the Particular Law of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Be a faithful member of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, and respond to each call of the Father and Head of the Church to participate in it.

We urge you to protect and affirm the faith and to work devotedly for our faithful and the salvation of their souls. Listen to the clergy and faithful of the eparchy entrusted to your care.

We ask all the faithful of Eparchy of the Holy Family to accept their bishop with respect and love. May the clergy show proper obedience to you in the service of Christ, the Church, and the People of God, in order that the word of Christ's truth be spread throughout the entire eparchy, to the glory of the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-Giving, and Undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Along with all the bishops of our Church we pray to the Lord for you, our dear brother, for the grace of God necessary for the proper implementation of the duties entrusted to you.

May the blessing of the Lord be with you, dear brother in Christ!

+ SVIATOSLAV

Rev. Mykola Sulyma,

chancellor of the Curia of the Major Archbishop

of Kyiv-Halych of the UGCC

Given in the city of Kyiv,

at the Patriarchal Cathedral of Resurrection of Christ

on the feast of the holy Martyr Conon

5/18 March A.D. 2020