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 15.05, [15:23] // Press-releases // Taras_H

Recently the parish of the UGCC in Athens (Greece) celebrated its 10th anniversary. The participants of the celebration were the Most Rev. Dionisiy (Lyakhovych), Curial Bishop, and the Most Rev. Yulian (Voronovskyj), Eparch of Sambir and Drohobych.

During their stay in Greece, on Saturday May 10, Bishops Dionisiy and Yulian were able to meet with the Exarch for Greek Catholics of Byzantine tradition, Bishop Anarghyros (Printesis). The guests from Ukraine thanked him for the support and development of the Ukrainian parish. A meeting with the successor of Bishop Anarghyros, Bishop-elect Prof. Dimitrios Salachas (the episcopal ordination will take place on May 24) also was held. Father Dimitrios was grateful that Ukrainian immigrants support the Greek Catholic Church and promised subsequent help for development of the parish of the UGCC. In addition to this the Bishops from Ukraine had a meeting in the Ukrainian embassy in Greece and with the Apostolic Nuncio in Greece, Archbishop Patrick Coveney.

On Sunday May 11 at 10.00 a festive Divine Liturgy began which Bishop Dionisiy concelebrated with Bishop Anarghyros, Archbishop Patrick, Bishop Yulian, and Bishop-elect Dimitrios. Priests of the Greek Catholic Church and of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church who arrived from Ukraine took part in the joint prayer. After the Gospel, Bishop Dionisiy in the Italian language greeted the Apostolic Nuncio and the local clergy and thanked them for the support of Ukrainian immigrants. The Curial Bishop of the UGCC built the basic part of his sermon on three virtues and senses: "memory," "gratitude," and "hope," with which it is possible to outline the 10-year jubilee. "We remember the difficult beginnings, our first attempts to organize the church community, the first Divine Liturgy on Easter 1998, which was celebrated by Fr. Serge Kelleher... We thank you. Gratitude is the gesture of a religious person. All that we have we have from God and also from others. We thank this state which accepted the Ukrainian immigrants; the Exarchate, which opened the doors of the Church of the Holy Trinity; the Ukrainian Embassy; priests who ministered and are ministering... We hope that we will continue and develop our way. One departs, others come. It happens in all of dimensions of human life," Bishop Dionisiy said in his sermon.

The Apostolic Nuncio and Bishop-elect Dimitrios had a word at the completion of the Liturgy. The latter used this possibility to present his vision of the development of the Ukrainian community.

On this day at 16.00, Bishops Dionisiy and Yulian, together with the priests of the UGCC, celebrated an Akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God. At the end of the prayer Bishop Yulian talked; he noted the value and importance of every citizen for our state and called the immigrants to return back to Ukraine. After the Akathist children and the parish choir came before all those present and then children from Lviv and Kharkiv presented a dance program.

Information

In 1998 in Athens on Easter, Fr. Archimandrite Serge Kelleher (Irish by origin) celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the first time in Greece in the Ukrainian language and blessed the paschal bread. Later Fr. Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Ph.D., at that time still a student in Rome and today the rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv, founded the Ukrainian community in Athens. During this time Fr. Yaroslav Batz and Fr. Atanasiy (a Greek) took care of our faithful, and for the last six years Fr. Lubomyr Datsiv.

Information Department of the UGCC
www.ugcc.org.ua