Ukraine Church Leaders Offer to Support 75th Anniversary of Genocide
12.09.2007, [14:39] // Digest //
UWC International Holodomor Coordinating Committee (UWC IHC)75th Commemoration of the Ukrainian Genocide 1932-1933.Toronto, Canada, 10 September 2007
Toronto - Recent meetings in Kyiv initiated by the Ukrainian World Congress with church leaders has resulted in a commitment from leaders to support the UWC International Holodomor Coordinating Committee (UWC IHC) plans for international engagement of churches in the 75th anniversary commemorations of the Holodomor (forced famine in Ukraine).
UWC President Askold Lozynskyj and UWC IHC Chairman Stefan Romaniw met with Patriarch Lubomyr Husar (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church UGCC) on Sunday August 26, 2007 and Patriarch Filaret Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate on Monday 27, 2007 to outline UWC IHC plans and explain the Memorandum of Understanding and Action Plan signed between the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, Institute Pamyat, and UWC IHC Members .
UWC delegation also included Victor Pedenko General Secretary, UWC Directors Bohdan Fedorak, Stefan Kekash, and Michael Sawkiw.
The church leaders were requested to communicate with their church hierarchies and parishes in Ukraine and internationally to raise awareness about the 75 anniversary and raise the consciousness of church leadership and parishioners. They were also invited to provide a representative to join the UWC IHC.
The outcomes of the meetings were positive, both patriarchs fully supporting the proposals and also recommending that the Council of Churches in Ukraine be engaged in this process. An official letter has now been sent to the council seeking its full commitment.
These decisions also give our church hierarchies throughout the world to make contact with their relevant Council of Churches and engage them in the commemoration and the raising awareness of the Holodomor issues through the world.
The UWC IHC will shortly issue further guidelines for UWC members to make contact with their church leaderships international to seek cooperation on a local level.
Source: Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service
