HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL DOCUMENT

Draft Synodical Document

Πέμπτη 27 Αυγούστου 2020

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE ARTICULATES THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE OCU AND THREE ISSUES TO ADDRESS

Ecumenical Patriarchate articulates the primary mission of the OCU and three issues to address - фото 1


Bishop Job is a Professor who speaks six languages and has completed all the stages of theological education of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Job (Getcha) believes that the OCU should unite all Orthodox.

He said this in an interview with Religiyna Pravda (Religious Truth).

“Now, the main challenges of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine are unity and spiritual development. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine should unite all Orthodox people in Ukraine, regardless of their origin, nationality, language or political views. Regarding its spiritual development, according to Metropolitan Hilarion (Ogienko), an outstanding Hierarch of the Orthodox Church of Poland, one of the first translators of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical texts into Ukrainian and an Archpastor of the Orthodox Diaspora in Canada, the Church needs three things: education, monasticism and publishing. Therefore, it is necessary to start and develop theological education in Ukraine according to University and scientific criteria; to develop true monasticism, which would be a true lamp of spiritual life, and not just be engaged in the construction of Church entities; to release catechetical, theological and liturgical books in Ukrainian of impeccable quality that would meet the spiritual needs of the faithful today. This requires a lot of work and effort.

Also, no Church should become introverted and limit itself to its problems. We must always remember the universal character of the Church and its global mission. Archbishop Anastasius of Albania says that every time a local Church is absorbed only by its own interests, a spiritual stagnation occurs. For whoever closes himself up and isolates himself, loses himself.”