On September 29, all Ukrainian Catholic Bishops in the Unites Sates held their meeting to discuss current issues of the life of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the USA. The five bishops gathered in Philadelphia: Archbishop Metropolitan of Philadelphia, PA, Borys Gudziak, bishop Paul Chomnycky of eparchy of Stemford, CT, bishop Benedyct Aleksiychyk of eparchy of St Nicolas in Chicago,Il, bishop Bohdan Danylo of eparchy of St Josaphat of Parma, OH, and auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia, PA, Andriy Rabiy.

This year the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church will have a Patriarchal Sobor in August 2020 on the theme “Emigration, settlement and global unity”. To prepare that Sobor each eparchy if the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church should have their own eparchial Sobor/Convention. The results of the eparchial conventions in the US were discussed by the bishops of the Ukrainian Metropolia in the US. Nevertheless, one subject was added to that theme: immigration, due to the huge number of the newly arrived Ukrainians to the US.

To better understand how to serve the Ukrainian faithful, the Ukrainian Church has started the Social Studies focused on all Ukrainians the diaspora and the newly arrived as well. The Bishops discussed the results of the first phase and planned the ongoing phase II.

The common events of the Ukrainian Church were also in the heart of the meeting of the bishops. Especially they consecrated the time to plan the Metropolitan Clergy Conference scheduled for October, 2020 in Chicago, Il.

On the following day, all bishops participated in the Conference “Spiritual and theological lessons of the abuse crisis”. The main speakers were Fr Hans Zollner, SJ, president of the Center for child protection of Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, and deacon Bernie Nojadera, head of USCCB Child Youth Protection Department. The conference was organized by the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia for clergy, religious, seminarians, eparchial/diocesan staff, and parish representatives.