Ukraine's recently established Council of Christian Churches discusses its mission

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

KYIV - The recently formed Council of Representatives of Christian Churches of Ukraine (CRCCU) held a meeting in Kyiv on February 3, with delegates from Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant denominations taking part. Among other topics, the representatives discussed the social ministry of the Christian Churches of Ukraine.

The meeting of the council was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the All-Ukraine Union of Churches of the Evangelical Christian Faith - Pentecostals, the Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church, and the Brotherhood of Independent Churches and Missions of Evangelical Christian Baptists.

The participants discussed a draft of the founding statutes of the council, the situation regarding legislative initiatives on religious and moral matters, and some aspects of the churches social ministry.

According to Father Oleksa Petriv, advisor for the UGCC on relations with administrative bodies and a participant at the meeting, such a council needed to be created so that the initiative for discussing various social problems would not only start with the government, but with the Churches.

Father Petriv explained that the council is not an alternative to the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which has a wider range of activity, inasmuch as it has members not only from Christian groups, but from all religions in Ukraine. The CRCCU, however, has representatives only of Christian churches.

Father Petriv noted that the council meets monthly, in accordance with its founding declaration, signed by the superiors of the Christian Churches of Ukraine on December 2, 2003. Each Church sends one delegate to the conference. The declaration provides for the participation of founding members of the council and other religious organizations.

"The main purpose of the council is consolidation of the efforts of Christians to solve burning issues of social life. The process of the final working out of the statutes of the council, which will be approved by the heads of the various Christian Churches, is currently under way," said Father Petriv.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 7, 2004, No. 10, Vol. LXXII

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