UGCC Head met with the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) and agreed on cooperative efforts

Thursday, 14 February 2013, 10:34
On February 8th, a meeting took place between the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) and the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) Oleksandr Popov. “For our Church, this was a historical meeting, since the last meeting of our Church Primate happened some five years ago. At that time the mayor was Oleksandr Omelchenko and the UGCC Head was His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar,” noted the Primate.

On February 8th, a meeting took place between the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church,     His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) and the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) Oleksandr Popov.  “For our Church, this was a historical meeting, since the last meeting of our Church Primate happened some five years ago.  At that time the mayor was Oleksandr Omelchenko and the UGCC Head was His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar,” noted the Primate.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav focused on the fact that for UGCC “it is significant to recognize that during the years of independence, our Church has become an integral part of the City of Kyiv.”  “We work for the benefit of the city, for the well-being of its residents.  There are very many of us in the capital.  Therefore we would like to contribute all of this potential --into all that is good in Kyiv,” he said.

UGCC Primate shared with Oleksandr Popov the plans which UGCC has for 2013, especially in terms       of the jubilee of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine, since the capital will be the center of the celebrations.  Particularly in the plans of UGCC is an international pilgrimage of UGCC faithful to Kyiv.  “Our Church is present throughout the world but our center remains Kyiv.  His Beatitude Lubomyr returned the seat of the UGCC Head to Kyiv in 2005. Since then there began an intensive development of our presence in the capital.  Right now, we are building a Patriarchal Cathedral that is a sign of our unity.  It is this Cathedral that will be the goal of the August 18th international pilgrimage.  Events will also include the UGCC Bishops Synod to be held here in Kyiv.”  According to him, there will also be a lot of representatives of other Churches, although a Papal visit will not happen. “We expect that at our celebrations there will be a Papal Representative, assigned for such events.  Present will be the head of the Canadian Conference of Bishops as well as Cardinal Dolan, the Head of the USA Episcopal Conference.”

UGCC Head shared his ideas with Oleksandr Popov about clearing up the territory on the Dnipro River banks near the Patriarchal Cathedral since the access to the river during the celebration of the Baptism is vital:  “Clearing up the territory is one of those things that we would like to cooperate together with KCSA.  For us it would be important that the city government declares our pilgrimage as a city-wide event.”  Oleksandr Popov answered, “We could organize a joint program committee since it demands a lot of care to host such honorable guests.  It is important to us that they leave Kyiv with positive impressions.”

Prior to this, Oleksandr Popov wants to visit the cathedral site.  “We will listen to your proposals of creating the most visitor-friendly environment and we will also make our own proposals.  Maybe there need to be pavements, new flower and trees planted… Your plans are also our plans,” he commented.

Then UGCC Primate also raised the issue with the city authorities about the needs of the Charitable Fund Caritas-Kyiv, whose rent lease is running out.  According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, tying the Fund to the Cathedral is not right because then it limits the people they can serve and “we want to serve all the needy.”

Among other things, His Beatitude Sviatoslav also presented a petition signed by people requesting the assignment of four land parcels for the building of UGCC churches.  ”Of all churches in Kyiv, we are the most discriminated against.  The last request for a land parcel was submitted ten years ago.                 Since then we have not received one single parcel in the capital,” said UGCC Head.  Therefore, he emphasized, “I want to submit four petitions for land parcels with signatures attached.  We are ready to comply with any existing legal building codes.”  KCSA Head promised that he will assist this “as much as possible.”

Oleksandr Popov told UGCC Head about the construction of the Monument of Sovereignty on the banks of Dnipro near the Ark of Friendship of Nations as well as a monument to the Baptism of Kyiv residents.   Also the KCSA Head promised to answer the questions raised during the meeting and voiced his expectation that all Greek-Catholics will be satisfied with the co-operation of the city officials.

At the conclusion of the visit, His Beatitude gave Oleksandr Popov a Papal silver medal as a memento of the visit and a photo-audio transcription of his first year as the Church Primate, noting that he was the first UGCC Head to be installed in Kyiv.

UGCC Department of Information

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