“The state should enhance that each believing person receives what is theirs…,” His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar) at the Educational Forum in Kyiv

The initiators of the event were the representatives of UGCC Commission on  Issues of Education and Upbringing in cooperation with UGCC Commission on Issues of the Laity, the Community Council on Issues of  Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations at the Ministry of Education  and Scholarship, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, UCU Catechetical-Pedagogical Institute. Recognized experts of education participating in the forum, will give presentations covering the current level of education in Ukraine and abroad, an analysis of the cooperation of the Church and education, a discussion of the fundamental approaches to the formation of Christian values in the educational-upbringing process.  This forum will finalize in a summery Recommendation on the Issue of Cooperation between State and Education.

Presenters at the forum include: Lillia Hrynevych, main director of the Ukrainian Center of Evaluation of the Quality of Education, coordinator of  the movement Society of  Knowledge; Omelian Vyshnevsky, Professor of  Ivan Franko Drohobych State Pedagogical Institute, academician of Higher Education of Ukraine; Viktor Malakhov, Professor, Department of Philosophy of Culture, Ethics, Esthetics of the H.S.Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine;  Yuriy Reshetnikov, Ukrainian state, political and religious activist; Volodymyr Marushchenko, Ukrainian politician, national deputy of the Fifth Session; Rev. Roman Nebozhuk, head of UGCC  Office for Relations with state organizations in Kyiv; Ludmyla Fylypovych, a specialist in religious studies, history of religion, ethnology of religion; Sr. Oleksandra Yakymets, SNDM.

In blessing the work of the forum, his Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar) noted that such an event is an opportunity to consider the needs of the Ukrainian nation and to formulate these into concrete and useful decisions in the educational sphere.

“We have gathered here today at an important time, because it is during these days that the UGCC Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ will be consecrated and it will become the symbol of the unity of Christians. Also, on the other side, we are also commemorating this year the 1025^th anniversary of the Baptism of Ukraine –Rus. These two events lead us to consider how much do we care about the Christian upbringing of our children,” noted His Beatitude Lubomyr.

The Archbishop-Emeritus urged all to consider how to help every person, all the more a child, to understand and live according to the convictions which humanity received from the lips of the Savior. “We are talking about Christianity not only from a theological viewpoint, but also from the practical side of how we should live. We need to make sure that our parents  clearly  recognize their responsibility for their children, that within the means of their responsibilities, they try to guarantee their children with a full-fledged Christian upbringing. It is parents who are those first responsible for the religious education of a child,” noted the speaker. In His Beatitude’s opinion the state should also enhance the possibility that each believer receives what they deserve in terms of support to a calling, the existence of Christian schools, and the financial support of religious educational programs.

UGCC Department of Information