Nishchuk allows UGCC to hold Liturgy at Sophia Cathedral at Annunciation

Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevgeny Nishchuk

By order of the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevgeny Nishchuk, who himself is a UGCC parishioner, on April 7, 2019, Greek Catholics will be able to celebrate the Liturgy at the St. Sophia Cathedral, reports the online edition “The Catholic Observer”.

“I want to share with you a great joy. At our request this week, I received a message from the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevgeny Nishchuk, that on April 7, on the feast of the Annunciation, we will be able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Therefore, I cordially invite all of you to join this event ... We will do everything possible so that we all could properly take part in this Divine Liturgy! Therefore, I solemnly proclaim the pilgrimage of our entire Church to the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev on April 7 this year,” the head of the UGCC Svyatoslav Shevchuk shared the news.

According to him, for those who will not be able to get to the premises of the cathedral on this day, special monitors will be put in Sophia Square and everyone will be able to participate in the Liturgy to take to the Holy Confession and the Holy Communion.

The head of the UGCC stated that the common goal of the Greek Catholics and representatives of the OCU is to create a unified Kiev Patriarchate. “It is very important that our sister Church, the newborn Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, should join it (the ecumenical movement – Ed.). So that it is not focused only on itself,” said Svyatoslav Shevchuk. Later, he, together with the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevgeny Nishchuk, attended the enthronement of the "Primate" of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. 

On January 17, 2019, Shevchuk stressed that no church could single-handedly claim the Sophia Cathedral. According to him, the cathedral is "a meeting place for all the descendants of the Sophia Church of Kiev, a reminder, an appeal, awakener, and a hope for our union in Christ".

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