Meeting of the Patriarchal Commission on Clergy continues in Zarvanytsia
On May 21, a meeting of the Patriarchal Commission on Clergy of the UGCC began. This year’s meeting of the Commission is being held at the Marian Retreat Center in Zarvanytsia. The main organizer is the Ternopil Higher Theological Seminary, named after Patriarch Yosyf Slipyj, which welcomes all participants and guests.
The meeting began with a welcoming speech by Bishop Bohdan Danylo, Chairman of the Commission. Then each of the rectors told about the existing conditions of the seminaries during the war, the difficulties and challenges of the academic year 2022–2023, and announced preparations for the new admission campaign to the seminaries of the UGCC.
The second day of the meeting was special because the Chairman of the Commission celebrated his birthday. On this occasion, Metropolitan Vasyl Semeniuk of Ternopil-Zboriv came to greet the participants and thanked Bishop Bohdan for his service.
The second day of the Commission’s work was devoted to the topics of psycho-spiritual integration and the growth of seminarians.
The speakers shared the experience of their pilot project for students of the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit, which aimed to analyze the psycho-emotional state of the seminarians. After participating in the program, the 4-module program showed the actual state of holistic development and the positive dynamics of growth of the human and spiritual features of the seminarian’s personality.
In the afternoon, the rectors focused on pastoral support for families, particularly the priest’s role in forming Christian families. At the end of the working day, internally displaced persons from Zaporizhzhia, Kramatorsk, and Pokrovsk, who have been living in Zarvanytsia since the beginning of the war, were invited to the meeting.
