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Published by
Interfax,
July 20, 2005
The Council of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of Canada marks substantial
depletion of its ranks |
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Ottawa, July 20, Interfax - The 21st Council of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
(Patriarchate of Constantinople), which took
place in Winnipeg, marked a considerable decline
of the UOCC memberships.
According to an official press release of the
Council, which has come to Interfax on
Wednesday, there were 119 thousand members in
1961, while only 11 thousand have remained in
2004. ‘Do I want our Church to grow?’ - this
question was to be answered by the assembly. At
the same time it was underlined that an
affirmative answer required a willingness to pay
a church tithe.
Then the Council proceeded to the main item on
its agenda - the election of a new candidate to
the throne vacant after the death in January of
the head of the UOCC, 94 year-old Metropolitan
Wasyly Fedak. There was only one nominee, acting
primate Archbishop John Stink. There were no
other candidates and the secret ballot brought
success to the archbishop from Edmonton. 318
members of the Council welcomed the primate
elect with a lengthy standing ovation. The
representative of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople, Greek Metropolitan Sotirios of
Toronto, expressed confidence that Patriarch
Bartholomew would soon approve this choice.
The Council also elected a new candidate to the
episcopate (there are two bishops left in the
UOCC). It was Michael Skrumeda of Winnipeg.
There were no other candidates either. However,
there were three candidates to the post of
chairman of the Consistory Presidium, the
leading body of the UOCC. After two rounds of
secret ballot, Father Bohdan Hladio from
Hamilton was elected. The winner was also
welcomed with a standing ovation.
The Consistory’s financial committee informed
the Council that the UOCC had no more debts. The
Council raised the minimal salary of a priest
from 2000 to 2500 dollars. It was noted that the
number of students of St. Andrew’s College, in
which UOCC priests are trained, was ‘relatively
small’. However, the dean informed the Council
that 31 years ago, when he entered the college,
he was the only student in his grade but this
educational institution has not been closed to
this day. This report was welcomed as ‘good
news’.
The Council paid attention to church affairs in
Ukraine. Archbishop Yurij Kalischuk stated that
the church in Ukrain should be one and should be
‘ruled by its own patriarch’. This was
reaffirmed by a guest of the Council, Archbishop
Vsevolod Maidansky of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church in the USA, which is also in the
jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople.
It was ‘completely unanimously’, as the press
release states, that a message to Patriarch
Bartholomew was adopted expressing gratitude for
‘for supporting the aspirations of the people of
Ukraine to have a free and autocephalous
Ukrainian Orthodox Church’.
The Council also called upon the Moscow
Patriarchate ‘to renounce any jurisdictional
claims to the territory of Ukraine’ and to
expressed ‘sadness and profound disappointment
with the Moscow Patriarchate for the
reprehensible and Ukrainophobic conduct of some
of its hierarchs, clergy and faithful
historically and during the recent Presidential
elections in Ukraine’.
Until 1990 the Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox Church
of Canada was outside communion with the
canonical churches, since it was headed by
йmigrй hierarchs of the unrecognized Ukrainian
Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). Since 1990
the UAOC has been declared ‘a church body under
the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’.
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