“We bear responsibility for the growth of faith among others…”, His Beatitude Sviatoslav on the Year of Faith

In each eparchy, notes the Church Primate, a bishop is a teacher of faith: “Being the successor of apostles, he bears the greatest responsibility to God for spreading  the Good News of Christ there where he has been assigned by the  Church. “Accordingly, the bishop is assisted in fulfilling this obligation by the priest who “liturgically celebrates the faith of the Church, gives birth through the Holy Sacraments to new members of the Church, assumes responsibility for teaching faith in his church community, cares about serving brethren with pastoral attention and openness to each person.”  A good priest, emphasizes the author, tries to make the parish community a vibrant one – “a place to encounter the living Christ.”

Given present-day challenges of a secularized and materialistic world, according to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, monks and nuns provide a particular witnessing of faith.  Since the monastic orders live according to the evangelical advice of poverty, chastity and obedience, they by their own example become the preachers of the calling of each Christian to the future blessings of God’s kingdom.  Also the Christian family, as a home Church, that is, as a first school of prayer and Christian learning, is an important environment for transmitting faith and upbringing in a Christina life.  “Parents are the essential evangelizers and the apostles of faith for their children, therefore they should assiduously care about their responsibility to bring up their children in a Christian spirit,” says UGCC Head and Father.

“We are saddened by the loss of Eucharistic communication with our brethren  in Christian faith and strive towards imbedding into life Christ’s commandment: “That all be one,” especially in relations with the sons and daughters of the once unified Kyiv Church which was in union with Rome and with Constantinople and the rest of the Christian East.  We should develop in ourselves a missionary call in order to spread, through the fire of the Holy Spirit, the light of the Gospel of Christ to all who have not yet accepted Christ as their Savior and God.  We also have the opportunity to express in reality our Christian faith through social services, since our attitude towards the needy is the best mirror of our spiritual maturity,” summarized Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych UGCC.

Let us remember that UGCC Synod of Bishops that took place on September 9-16 in Winnipeg (Canada) answered the initiative of His Holiness the Holy Father, and pronounced 2013 as the Year of Faith in UGCC and created an Organizing Committee which was charged with planning appropriate spiritual events on an all-Church basis in the context of the 1025 Jubilee Commemoration of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine, according to the Communiqué of the Synod of Bishops 2012.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), UGCC Head, during the Divine Liturgy held in St. Sophia Cathedral in Rome on October 14, 2012 officially opened the Year of Faith in UGCC. Recently the Organizing Committee headed by Sambir-Drohobych Eparch, Bishop Yaroslav (Pryriz), announced its plans on commemorating the Year of Faith in UGCC on an all-church level, which was approved by Resolution No. 30 of the 2^nd (33^rd) session of the UGCC Permanent Synod of Bishops. The Year of Faith in UGCC will be marked under the motto “One God, one Faith, one Baptism.”

UGCC Department of Information