29 November in Lviv, 13 December in Ivano-Frankivsk, 22 December in Ternopil. Those are the dates and places of hierarchical liturgies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), during which the decrees on establishment of three new metropolitanates will be presented. The information was announced by the head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, during a web conference on www.tochka.net, explaining that the establisment of new metropolitanates is an important step in the natural development of the UGCC toward patriarchy: “Today in Ukraine there is a single Metropolitanate of Kyiv and Halych. With such structure it reflects the situation of the Church that we had in times of Kyivan Rus, “more than 1000 years ago. According to His Beatitude, the Church has developed since then, particularly in Ukraine, and actual state “needs to be improved”.
“Therefore, in order to provide better pastoral care for our faithful, according to the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC and with the blessing of the Apostolic See, we created three new metropolitanates”, added His Beatitude Sviatoslav. The Lviv Metropolitanate will include the Lviv Archeparchy and the Stryi, Sambir-Drohobych, and Sokal-Zhovkva eparchies; the Ivano-Frankivsk Metropolitanate will consist of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia-Chernivtsi eparchies; and Ternopil-Zboriv Metropolitanate will include Ternopil-Zboriv and Buchach eparchies. The first metropolitans of the newly established metropolitanates will be archbishop Ihor Voznyak - archbishop of Lviv; bishop Volodymyr Viytyshyn - eparch of Ivano-Frankivsk; and bishop Vasyl Semeniuk – current eparch of Ternopil-Zborowski. After the reorganization the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will have seven metropolitanates altogether.

© www.agensir.it - november 10th 2011