UGCC Synod of Bishops begins in Curitiba, Brazil

In the city of Curitiba, Brazil, on 5 September 2011, began the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The opening ceremony was held on 4 September, 2011 at the closing session of the V UGCC Patriarchal Sobor in Prudentopolis where a decree of the Head of the UGCC was read out.   The Synod headed by the UGCC Primate, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, is attended by UGCC Bishops from Ukraine and abroad (Western Europe, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentine, and Australia). It should be noted that it is the first Synod headed by Patriarch Sviatoslav after he has been elected the Head of the UGCC.   The Synod began with a Moleben service presided at by the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh). At the end of the service, the Bishops took their oath. Afterwords, the Gospel book was solemnly brought into the meeting hall and the first Synod session started.   According to the UGCC Primate, the particularity of the Synod is the subject on which the Bishops are to spend most of their time, namely, the strategy of development of the UGCC untill 2020.   Recalling the last Synod of Bishops which treated the theme of evangelization, His Beatitude Sviatoslav said: “We realized that evangelization is an activity of the Church as a whole, it is everything the Church does  with the aim of preaching the Word of God with words and deeds. Therefore the concluding document  on evangelization will stem from the strategical vision of development of our Church”.   The Synod of Bishops of the UGCC will be concluded on 11 September.  

UGCC Information Department