Ukrainian Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church

I would like to share with my readers the thoughts that our Metropolitan Archbishop Soroka shared with regard to our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the United States. He began by saying that our Church continues to be challenged by many very obvious challenges, as well as many subtle influences. He maintains that this is also true of our Church in other parts of the world.

Some of these influences have been at work for decades, while some have become more pronounced since the independence of Ukraine. He maintains that it is be fair to say that we are seeking to know our identity, who we are in our own eyes, in the eyes of the larger Catholic Church and in the eyes of our sister Orthodox Churches.

With Ukraine’s independence, there has occurred a shift in our identity as a surviving Church in the diaspora to a Church in the United States that is part of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church based in Kyiv. We are no longer a diaspora – which in itself says that we would return to the motherland. We are a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church here in the United States with our own hierarchs, clergy and faithful, with our own unique needs. We are journeying together in faith with the larger universal Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which happens to be the largest of the Eastern Churches within the Catholic Communion of Churches.

Metropolitan Stefan maintains that our people here in America are truly searching for a spiritual home, a place where their thirst for God can be satisfied. Each of us are challenged in our spiritual journey daily. We are all thirsting for the presence of God, to   understand His ways, to know His love, a love expressed through those with whom we journey in our lives. We seek to understand ourselves better. We seek the God within us, that we may know Him and celebrate Him through our words and actions. And we need others in this journey of faith, for growth in our understanding and love of God. We all seek a sense of family, of community, God’s holy community in His Church, in our parishes.

The degree to which we develop this deep and gut-felt sense of family, of community within our Church will determine the future of our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the United States. This will mean a stepping back and re-evaluating the manner in which we celebrate being Church. This will   require some bold changes. This will mean truly coming to know ourselves, first and foremost, as Christians, that is followers of Jesus Christ.