In December, UGCC head to make pastoral visit to Odesa and Crimea Exarchate

Friday, 02 December 2011, 17:19
Greek Catholics in Kirovohrad are waiting for the arrival of the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk). The pastoral visit of the primate of the church is scheduled for December 3-5. During these days, the head of the UGCC will meet with local clergy and laity, with the mayor, heads the oblast, and will hold a press conference.
Greek Catholics in Kirovohrad are waiting for the arrival of the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk). The pastoral visit of the primate of the church is scheduled for December 3-5. During these days, the head of the UGCC will meet with local clergy and laity, with the mayor, heads the oblast, and will hold a press conference. The pastoral visit to the Odesa-Crimea Exarchate starts in Kirovohrad. The visit includes also a visit to Kherson and Odesa. The visit will end on Sunday, December 11, with a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the Church of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Odesa. It is expected that on Saturday in Kirovohrad the head of the UGCC will celebrate Vespers at the parish chapel, and on Sunday he will lead a Hierarchical Liturgy and have a conversation with the faithful. As RISU reported, the head priest of a local church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Fr. Ivan Tretiak, in the Kirovohrad region there are several hundred Greek Catholics, about 200 people who identify themselves as the faithful of the UGCC who reside in the regional center. The Greek Catholics maintain good relations with all the denominations and there is no animosity between them. "We want His Beatitude Sviatoslav to see with his own eyes our church in the Kirovohrad region,” said Fr. John , “because in this area the church resumed its service in October 2006." In Kirovohrad, three others priests minister together with Fr. Ivan Tretyak. They have five communities – two in Kirovograd, one in the village Chervonovershka where there live people whose parents were deported from the Lemko region during Operation Wisla, one in the village Volodymyrivka, and one in the district center Znamenka. There, the local Greek Catholics have for seven years tried to acquire a land plot from the government, but have always gotten a negative response. “Our community develops actively in Kirovohrad. In 2008 the regional center received  a land plot and we built the Church of St. John the Baptist.  The church was consecrated by the then head of the UGCC Lubomyr (Husar). With the support of Bishop Milan (Shashik), we built the first wooden chapel. Now we are erecting a new church in this place. The church in Kirovohrad, in general, has good prospects, but our people unfortunately are dispersed. It would be good for His Beatitude Sviatoslav to evaluate the religious situation in our area and make appropriate conclusions,” said Fr. Ivan Tretiak.

UGCC Information Department

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