We see interest in the UGCC in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, Fr. Andriy Dmytryk

The enthronement of the new Apostolic Exarch, Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh, will take place on Sunday, April 18, 2021. How was the news of his appointment received in Germany?

"We were pleasantly surprised that this is Bishop Bohdan, because we know him as the secretary of the Synod of Bishops; he has often been to Germany, he is well known here."

The enthronement, due to the increased quarantine measures, will take place with a minimal presence of the clergy and the faithful - there will be only representatives of the Church and the state. It will be led by the Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, who has already arrived in Munich.

UGCC in Germany: historical background

Germany has been a country of the Ukrainian diaspora for a long time: the first wave of emigration was in the 1920s. Then, in 1927, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky appointed a pastor for Ukrainian Greek Catholics based in Berlin, Fr. Petro Verhun. In 1945, he was arrested by the NKVD, taken to Kyiv, sentenced to life in exile in Siberia, where he died. Blessed and Holy Martyr of the UGCC.

The second wave of emigrants from Ukraine were the so-called DP - displaced persons from labor and concentration camps in Germany after World War II. Many Ukrainians feared the return to the USSR, so they settled mainly in the port areas of Hamburg, hoping to go overseas - to America or Australia. In Hamburg since then there is one of the oldest communities of Ukrainian Greek Catholics and the Church of All Saints, the construction of which was initiated by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj in 1969.

In 1959, by a decree of Pope John XXIII, the Apostolic Exarchate of the UGCC in Germany and the Scandinavian countries was established. For more than 40 years, Bishop Platon Kornelyuk was the Apostolic Exarch in Germany, and since 2001, Bishop Petro Kryk.

About the Apostolic Exarchate in Germany and the Scandinavian countries today

Father Andriy says that there are 75,000-77,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Germany.

"It is interesting that over the last seven years, after the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, people from the Crimea, the East and the Center of Ukraine have come to us more and more often," said Fr. Andriy, “And this is great and good news for us."

Currently, there are 55 UGCC communities of various levels in Germany.

In the Scandinavian countries, over the last 5-7 years, there has been a significant increase in the emigration of Ukrainians - mostly young people who go to study and work. Some Scandinavian countries have their priests, others (i.e., Finland, Iceland) do not.

"Perhaps it will be one of Bishop Bohdan's first priorities to have our priest in Reykjavik," said Fr. Andriy. "In Iceland, the Ukrainian community is quite active - it is about 200 people, and, as far as I know, there is both potential and opportunities for the establishment of the UGCC."

UGCC in different linguistic and cultural environment

Interestingly, the language of the Liturgy in the churches of the UGCC in Germany is mostly Ukrainian, in contrast to other countries of the diaspora, where services are held 50/50 in the languages ​​of the host countries.

"The main reason is that the people who come to the Divine Liturgy are Ukrainians who want to feel at least a little at home, through the language of the Liturgy," says Fr. Andriy, “but I know parishes where there are people who, not being Ukrainians, speak Ukrainian fluently and want to hear the service in Ukrainian: they like our Liturgy, our rite… A similar situation in Scandinavia: in every parish or community there are people, who are really and sincerely interested in our rite, language, culture… That is, there is interest in the UGCC, and it does not subside."

The UGCC Department for Information