His Beatitude Sviatoslav discussed with Archbishop Elias (Chacour ) possibilities as to development of UGCC in the Holy Land

UGCC Primate His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) on April 5, 2013, met in Haifa (Israel) with His Excellency Elias (Chacour), Archbishop of the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church.  The hierarchs discussed how to effectively increase UGCC’s presence in Israel.

First of all, His Beatitude Sviatoslav thanked Bishop Elias for last year’s visit to Kyiv.  He emphasized that the visit by UGCC delegation “is a sign of respect and support.”

“The second reason of our visit is the fact that this year our church will celebrate the 1025^th anniversary of Baptism.  Therefore, prior to such an event, a visit to the Church of Jerusalem is a significant act.  The third reason is the desire to meet our faithful and to testify our care,” said the Father and Head of our Church.

Rev. Rostyslav Dvorov, superior of the church in Haifa, reported that there are 7,000 faithful in northern Galilee.  That is according to official statistics.  And, unofficially, there are about twice the number.  And then there is Southern Israel…  Mostly these are people who arrived here to work.  As a rule, if no one is interested in them, then they often go to Protestant churches.  Therefore it is important that there be priests who speak at least one of the Slavic languages.

After hearing all the proposals to a more effective UGCC presence in Israel, Bishop Elias stated that he can give as many churches as are needed so that Ukrainian Greek-Catholics have a place to pray.  However, noted Rev. Rostyslav Dvorov, in the Holy Land a more pressing issue is not church facilities but the lack of priests.  Today, services for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics take place only twice a week in Haifa and in Tel Aviv – Jaffa.

Therefore one can expect that in the close future, UGCC will work on increasing the number of priests to serve their faithful in the Holy Land.

The meeting culminated in an agreement signed by UGCC Head His Beatitude Sviatoslav and MGCC Archbishop Elias (Chacour).

We remind our readers that last summer, His Excellency Elias (Chacour) visited Kyiv after his visit to the Marian Center in Zarvanytsia, where he participated in the All-Ukrainian and Youth Pilgrimage dedicated to the 120^th anniversary of the birth of UGCC Patriarch Josyf Slipyi and to the topic of Holy Sacraments.

UGCC Department of Information