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X Jubilee Ecumenical Social Week will be hosted in the capital

2017-02-24 09:00

In the discussion participated: Halyna Bokhonko, Executive Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at UCU, Oksana Ilenkiv, Coordinator of the "Ecumenical Social Week" and invited guests - Volodymyr Zalutskyi, NU "Lviv Polytechnic," Head of Youth Policy and Social Development Department; Ivan Fasolnyk, Chief Specialist of Social Programs and Software Management of Social Protection Office at DHP LCC (Department of Humanitarian Policy at the Lviv City Council); Svitlana Knyshyk, Head of the Department of Education and Science of Lviv Regional State Administration; Yurii Vizniak, Deputy of Lviv Regional Council, First Deputy Head of Lviv Territorial RPOL(Radical Party of Oleh Liashko), Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Historical Heritage; Lidiia Batih, Journalist of site "Spiritual grandeur of Lviv," organizer of School of Interreligious Journalism.

The council was opened by Halyna Bokhonko, Executive Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at UCU. She announced that the X Ecumenical Social Week (ESW) this year will be held twice: June 7-9 in Kyiv and October 4-7 in Lviv. For public discussion the theme of: "Dignity - Service - Solidarity. Towards renewal of the country" is presented.

 

Mrs. Halyna, in particular, noted that the initiative of holding the X EST in the capital belongs to the Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk. The organizer of the event – Institute of Ecumenical Studies gladly decided to support the idea. Halyna Bokhonko also explained a choice of the theme: "This year we decided to do a unifying forum that would show achievements of the nine previous years and at the same time we decided to stay at such a conceptual topic, taking into account the development of volunteering in the country, citizens' initiative, solidarity of nation. Forum’s name for both cities is the same, but the events will differ." Later participants of the Expert Council were presented with the program for discussion. In Kyiv, within the Forum it is planned to hold an open discussion of the same name and to talk about the development of the cooperative movement in Ukraine. Note that actually the I Ecumenical Social Week was dedicated to this topic. In the capital, a number of activities, including cultural and artistic activities for young people are planned. For the latter event young people from Germany and France will be invited.

 Project coordinator Oksana Ilenkiv continued to talk about the program in Lviv. In particular she named the invited speakers, including the president of the IES, Rev. Dr. Iwan Dacko; Valerii Pekar, Co-Founder of Civic Platform New Country; Rev. Dr. Alois Buch, Professor of moral theology at inter-diocesan higher seminary and training center in Germany; Myroslav Marynovych, Vice-Rector for University Mission at UCU and many others. Also, Coordinator announced a number of proposed events to carry in Lviv. Among them: an opening of the European Solidarity Centre’s Exhibition, a seminar of the Ukrainian Christian Academic Society, panel discussions, roundtables, book presentations, awarding ceremony for winners of the V Contest "Reporters of Hope in Ukraine" and many others.

Participants of the Expert Council discussed the program implementation, shared their suggestions, advice and amendments.

As the organizers of the X "Ecumenical Social Week" stress the theme of "Dignity - Service - Solidarity. Towards renewal of the country" always will be relevant, because the principles of solidarity, justice and love of neighbor are necessary to overcome the urgent problems, especially in times of transformation of society, war and general instability.