Number of Parishioners of UGCC in London and Dublin Increases

According to the Apostolic Administrator for the Exarchate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Great Britain and the Apostolic Visitator for Ireland, Bishop Hlib (Lonchyna), the number of the parishioners of UGCC in these countries is on the increase. The increase is primarily due to activization of the Ukrainians who came to England during the last 15-20 years. In addition, local priests make effort to improve the level of spiritual care for the faithful.

"There are immigrants of our older post-war emigration, which lives out its days, in Great Britain. Therefore, many parishes of UGCC lose their parishioners. Their children and grandchildren seldom come to our churches. Instead, in London itself, our parish has grown considerably. This is due to Ukrainians who came to England during the last 15-20 years," noted Bishop Hlib. According to him, each Sunday, in the cathedral in London, the two liturgies are attended by approximately a thousand faithful.

The situation in Ireland is somewhat different as there is only the new wave of emigration in that country. According to the press service of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, only 8 thousand Ukrainians lives in Ireland officially. According to the bishop, UGCC has a chapel in Dublin which is attended by about a hundred people.

The bishop said that the priests also try to adjust to the needs of the faithful, which hopefully is to promote the increase of the number of parishioners. It is particularly about technical details, such as change of time of the Liturgy: the lunch time is changed for the morning to enable a larger number of parishioners to attend.

Bishop Hlib also stressed that the pastoral activity in these countries is rather limited. According to him, it is primarily due to the scattering of the faithful all over the country, which makes it more complicated to gather each week and due to irregular working hours of the majority of the faithful.