Ukrainian Greek Catholics Call Youth Sobor

Wednesday, 15 August 2007 06:37

15.08.2007, [16:45] // UGCC // RISU.ORG.UA

Kyiv – The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) has proclaimed 2007 as the Year of Youth. On 13 August 2007 in Kyiv, the UGCC opened the Patriarchal Sobor (Assembly) “Youth in the Church of the Third Millennium” to discuss new problems and challenges facing youth and consider solutions.

In his speech Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), head of the UGCC, said: “We will gather for this sobor to discuss issues interesting and relevant to the church. Youth issues can never be out-dated. Our intention is to assist youth to reflect on the current situation in the third millennium…”

In the words of Fr. Rostyslav Pendiuk, “We cannot just sit as a group of wise elders and make decisions. We must first listen to young people, hear about their expectations, how they see the current situation, what changes they would envision, and in what aspects they would wish to participate.”

The sobor will last for six days. One of its key tasks is to determine which steps priests should take to encourage young people to participate in parish life. Prior to that, the organizers conducted research among youth in Ukraine, the U.S. and Australia. The church will try to analyze the various changes in young people’s outlooks and introduce corresponding corrections in its work in order to obtain their feedback.