About the Seventy-Fifth Session of the Synod of Bishops of Kyiv- Galician Supreme Archbishopric of the UGCC

In the Synod's sessions participated all current bishops of  Kyiv-Galician Supreme Archbishopric of the UGCC, and also: Bishop Yevhen (Popovych), Metropolitan of Peremyshl'-Warsaw; Bishop Volodymyr (Yuschak), Eparch of Wroclaw -Gdansk, and Bishop Nil (Luschak), Bishop auxiliary of Mukachevo Greek-Catholic Eparchy.

In the first half of the day, before the beginning of the Synod's sessions, there was held a seminar devoted to the questions of pastoral care of the UGCC in the Eastern and Central Ukraine.

The main topic of this Session of the Synod of Bishops of Supreme Archbishopric was "State of fulfilling decisions of the 2013 Synod of Bishops of the UGCC regarding the Strategy of development of our Church beyond Halychyna, report about the work of the Missionary fund and cooperation with the eparchies from the west of Ukraine".  In the context of the main topic the synodal fathers listened to the report of the Bishop Bohdan  (Dziurakh) about the fulfillment of the Bishops' decisions from 2013 regarding the strategy of development of our Church in the east of Ukraine - "Directions for new evangelization in the UGCC." They approved the report about the work of the Missionary fund of the UGCC, done by Fr. Roman Nebozhuk, and reviewed the mechanisms of cooperation between hierarchical structures of Halychyna with those from other parts of Ukraine, the report about which was done by the Bishop Vasyl  (Tuchapets).

In the section of  working over the synodal documents, the Synod adopted the Declaration regarding the "revelations" of s. Mariya Baran, spread by Fr. Hryhorij  Planchak.

A considerable part of the synodal sessions was devoted to the issue of providing proper pastoral care for the Ukrainian migrant workers and emigrants in Poland. About the current pastoral situation in this country reported in detail: Metropolitan Yevhen (Popovych), Bishop Volodymyr (Yuschak) and fr. Stepan Batrukh. In the result of discussing this question the Synod expressed gratitude to the bishops and fathers of our Church in Poland for the proper pastoral care for the Ukrainian migrant workers and emigrants , and adopted a couple of decisions,  which should help to organize good pastoral care for our migrant workers and emigrants in Poland.

The Synod pondered on the question of proper honoring the 70 years of the action "Visla" and adopted the corresponding decisions for honoring the victims of that violence.

Fr. Andrij Stadnytsky, the head of the Catechetic commission of Kyiv Galician Supreme Archbishopric of the UGCC, reported about its work. The synodal fathers approved of this report, taking it into consideration.

The Synod listened to the information about the work of the Coordination council on matters of pastoral care in critical situations, which was presented by Bishop Bohdan (Manyshyn), the head of the Coordination council, and Ms Maria Sokhatska, who spoke about modern therapeutic practices which could be useful for those who suffered from the war in the east of Ukraine and those who have  post-traumatic stress disorder.

The members of the Synod listened to the information about the mission and work of the Ukrainian Catholic University, which was presented by Mr Lubomyr Tarnovsky, the financial director of the UCU.  The Synod approved of the information about the state of material and financial providing of this church educational institution and about the new directions of bachelor programs.

The seventy-sixth session of the Synod of Bishops of Kyiv-Galician Supreme Archbishopric of the UGCC will be held in June 2017 AD.

Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops of Kyiv-Galician Supreme Archbishopric of the UGCC