UGCC Head discussed with Knights of Columbus US headquarters development of Knights in Ukraine
On May 13, 2019, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, visited the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven, CT, their main residence in the United States. In addition, the Primate presided over the Liturgy, according to the Department of Information of the UGCC.
“I extend my sincere gratitude to the Knights of Columbus for their full support,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav and offered those attending a spiritual instruction.
In his sermon, the Head of the UGCC spoke about the importance and power of Christ's Resurrection, especially in the period when some countries are in a state of war, in particular, it concerns Ukraine.
"The Lord is the source of life. He frees us, brings sense to our lives and believes in us,” said the spiritual leader of the Greek Catholics.
At the end of the sermon, he shared good news from Ukraine, in particular concening the development of the Knights of Columbus community in the country.”
After the worship, he met with Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, to whom His Beatitude Sviatoslav offered as a token of gratitude an antimension consecrated this Thursday at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, which contained the relics of the baptism of the holy martyr Nicholas Charnetsky.
During the meeting a number of issues on further cooperation and development of the Knights in Ukraine were discussed.
“Today, I had a special pleasure to concelebrate the thanksgiving Divine Liturgy with His Beatitude Sviatoslav in the Chapel of the Knights of Columbus Headquarters in New Haven. As a national chaplain, I dedicated this Liturgy to the development of the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine and the newly elected members of the National Council under the leadership of Bohdan Kovaliv. Over the five years of its existence, the Ukrainian Knights have grown from several dozen to more than 1,300 brothers throughout Ukraine, united in 29 councils,” said Fr. Volodymyr Malchyn, Head of the Department of Development of the UGCC.
Background
In Ukraine, the Knights of Columbus community was founded more than five years ago. Starting with several dozen male knights, nowadays it counts 1,320 brothers in Ukraine, which are organized in 29 councils operating in Poltava, Zaporizhya, Melitopol, Odesa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky, Sambir, Kyiv and many other cities. Out of these 29 councils, 17 operate in the Greek-Catholic parishes and 12 in the Roman Catholic parishes. During this fraternal year, 232 new knights were taken in and four new councils were created (Kamenets-Podilsky, Voronyaky, Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk-Pasichna), and two new cells were created in Zhytomyr and Kamyanets-Podilsky.
41.5% of the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine are men below 40 years old, 40% are men from 40 to 60 years old, and 18.5% of knights are over 60. Approximately 67.6% of the Ukrainian knights were awarded the first degree of chivalry, 10% have the second degree , and 21.7% - the third one. In Ukraine, the first eight knights were awarded the highest fourth patriotic degree.
