Bishop Ken (Nowakowski) calls the faithful of the eparchy to pray not only for numerous vocations but also for their perfect culmination

“For its growth the Church needs good spiritual leaders, which means, first of all, priests who are well-qualified and duly-appointed for ministry.” So wrote Bishop Ken (Nowakowski), Eparchial Bishop of New Westminister (Canada), and head of the Patriarchal Commission on Priestly Formation in Seminaries of the UGCC. The document underlying Bishop Ken’s message is the "Proclamation to the faithful of the UGCC in 2009 the Year of Christian Vocation with a special accent on priestly vocations," in which His Beatitude Lubomyr marks the exceptional importance of the priestly vocation for the development and strengthening of our Church. “When we think of good priestly vocations,” Bishop Ken refers to the message of the Head of the UGCC, “we usually understand that to mean that there needs to be a sufficient number of vocations in the Church, in other words, that we have enough candidates in the seminaries. This is certainly an important issue, but not the only one, nor the most important.” According to the author, a vocation to the priestly state is born and nurtured long before that time when the youth decides to enter the seminary. The first Christian school is the family, which inculcates a child with certain values which will accompany it in life.  Then in his message the Eparch of New Westminster considers the next constituents of the development of a vocation, Christian society and the example of heroes of faith. Bishop Ken completes his message with an appeal for prayer not only for numerous vocations but also for their quality: “Following the call of the Synod of Bishops, I encourage all of us to pray in particular for priests and deacons ‑ not only that there be a sufficient number, but above all, that those who have undertaken this holy office find in it their life vocation and piously fulfill it according to God’s will,” wrote Bishop Ken (Nowakowski).

Information Department of the UGCC