On May 20, 2021 a seminar organized by the UCU Institute of Ecumenical Studies in cooperation with the UGCC Patriarchal Commission on Interreligious and Interfaith Relations with the support of the Diocese of Limburg was held in the conference hall of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of the Ukrainian Catholic University. The event was attended live and online by about thirty participants: heads of eparchial UGCC’ commissions on interreligious and interfaith relations, specialists in canon law, students of theology and people interested in ecumenical and legal issues.
Rev. Petro Balog OP, Director of the Institute of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kyiv, in his speech compared the use and meaning of the term “communio” in the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Rev. Andriy Chornenko, Vice-Rector for Educational and Methodological Work at the UGCC’ Ivano-Frankivsk Academy of John Chrysostom, spoke about the document issued in 2020 by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity entitled “The Bishop and Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Vademecum”, which contains detailed instructions and encouragements for Catholics to become active participants of various ecumenical initiatives.
Rev. Andriy Tanasiychuk, Deputy Head of the Canonical Department of the UGCC’ Patriarchal Curia, spoke about specific pastoral cases that priests encounter in their parishes celebrating the Holy Sacraments of Baptism or Wedding, and expressed his advices on how to avoid certain misunderstandings.
Rev. Mykhailo Dymyd, Professor of theology at the UCU Faculty of Philosophy and Theology, presented some challenges before the mixed (interdenominational) couples and encouraged the Churches to work more actively with such couples.
Rev. Volodymyr Vakin, Rector of the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy, presented the works of the Orthodox theologians, collected in the book “Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism” and shared his vision on development of the canon law in the Orthodox Church.
Rev. Korneliy Khrushch, Academic Secretary of the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy, stressed the importance of inter-Christian openness in daily canonical life of the Churches.
The seminar ended with a lively discussion.
The next day, May 21, the seminar participants met with the Chairman of the OCU Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue, Metropolitan of Lviv and Sokal Dymytriy (Rudyuk), as well as the Dean of the Theological Faculty of the Lviv Orthodox Theological Academy, a member of the Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue Kyprian Lozynsky. Bishop Dymytriy shared his opinion on the place and role of the layman in the paradigm of canon law. The meeting was held in a friendly and hospitable atmosphere. Father Ihor Shaban, Chairman of the UGCC Patriarchal Commission on Interreligious and Interfaith Relations, expressed his hope that the achievements of the dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches would be implemented on the local level by the UGCC and the OCU.
Photo by Korneliy Korneliy Khrushch and the Press Service of the Lviv-Sokal Eparchy