Ukrainian Ambassador Furkalo visits St. Andrew's College (12/08/96)

Ukrainian Ambassador Furkalo visits St. Andrew's College

WINNIPEG - Volodymyr Furkalo, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Canada, was the guest of honor at a reception recently hosted by the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies and St. Andrew's College at the University of Manitoba.

This was the first time that an ambassador of Ukraine had visited the University of Manitoba. St. Andrew's College was the only site the ambassador visited on the university campus.

Dr. Natalia Aponiuk, director of the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, welcomed the ambassador. She enumerated the many ties that exist between the University of Manitoba and Ukraine. The ties are both formal and informal, and are not limited to people of Ukrainian origin.

Academic exchanges

Several years ago Dr. Aponiuk had held meetings at various Ukrainian universities and institutes which resulted in the signing of an academic exchange agreement between the University of Manitoba and the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 1994. Several of the center's professors have given papers, lectured and done research in Ukraine.

This agreement is one of several the University of Manitoba has with Ukrainian institutions, including Kyiv State University, the Institute of Archeology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and Lviv Polytechnical State University. Dr. Orest Cap of the faculty of education, in conjunction with the South Winnipeg Technical Center, helped to establish three computer labs at Lviv Polytechnical. Professors from the departments of classics and anthropology are involved in archeological excavations in Crimea.

The department of German and Slavic studies has organized summer language programs for Canadian students at Kyiv State University. The faculty of Management is involved in programs with Kyiv State and the Lviv Institute of management. The department of political studies was involved in an internship program of the Institute of Public Administration. A professor of the faculty of engineering helped to establish and heads the Science and Technology Center of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Dr. Roman Yereniuk, principal of St. Andrew's College, described some of the ties which St. Andrew's College has with Ukraine. There are currently six students from Ukraine enrolled in the faculty of theology. They were part of the theology students' choir that wished both the ambassador and the country he represents "Mnohaya lita" (many years). A number of students from Ukraine have already graduated from the faculty of theology and are serving as priests.

Theology professors from St. Andrew's College have lectured at various theological centers in Ukraine and have been part of official delegations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada to Ukraine.

St. Andrew's has also served as the base for two summers for the internship program of the Institute for Public Administration in Kyiv .

Among those attending the reception were: Metropolitan Wasyly, chancellor of the college and primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada; the Very Rev. Dr. Oleh Krawchenko, the chair of the Presidium of the Consistory; the deans of graduate studies and the faculty of arts and the associate dean of education and faculty members of the University of Manitoba involved in projects relating to Ukraine, faculty members of the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies and the faculty of theology of St. Andrew's College, members of the center's Policy Council and the board of directors of St. Andrew's, as well as students from the center and the faculty of theology.

Hope for increased ties

Ambassador Furkalo expressed the hope that ties between the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, St. Andrew's College and the University of Manitoba and Ukraine would continue and increase. He presented a bust of Shevchenko to Dr. Aponiuk and Dr. Yereniuk as a memento of his visit.

Dr. Peter Kondra, chair of the center's Policy Council, and Russell Kapty, chair of the college's board of directors, presented the ambassador with a facsimile reproduction of the Ostrih Bible, which was commissioned by St. Andrew's College on the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Bible in 1581. One of the few original copies still in existence is part of the Ohienko Collection in the college's archival and rare book holdings.

The ambassador's visit to the University of Manitoba campus was part of his visit to Winnipeg on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Ukrainian independence. Mr. Furkalo was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Canada on January 24, and presented his letters of credence to Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc on February 14.