HIERARCHS OF PTsU PROMISE TO PRESERVE LITURGICAL LANGUAGE WITH A TRANSFER OF PARISHES INTO THIS CONFESSION
Religiia v Ukraine, 9 January 2019
Representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU) in Bukovina reported that upon the transfer of church communities of national minorities into the united Ukrainian church, the language of the worship services to which they are accustomed will be maintained for them. This was explained during a briefing after a joint liturgy by the Archbishop of Chernovtsi and Kitsman Onufrey, a former bishop of the UPTsKP, and Archbishop of Bukovina and Khotin German, a former bishop of the UAPTs, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to Hromadske.ua.
"In many Romanian news media, back before the unification council, it was reported that there would allegedly be thorough Ukrainization of the church, and our oblast, as is known, is multinational. Thus, the Romanian population of Bukovina was afraid that now supposedly the Ukrainians will come and take away your speech, your tradition, and so forth," German said.
"But this is not true. Our church is absolutely open for all, regardless of which language they speak and in which language they want to conduct religious worship," he emphasized.
The archbishop cited an example of one of the principal Bukovina parishes that decided to transfer from the Moscow patriarchate to the PTsU and how the Church Slavonic language of the liturgy remained.
"Here, for example, is the parish of the village of Shishkovtsy in Kitsman district. After the transfer to the united Ukrainian church, people asked to retain the Church Slavonic language in the services. They are accustomed to it and why should we oppose it?" the archbishop emphasized.
"If people want it, then the Romanian language of worship services will remain; if they want it, they will switch to Ukrainian. Nothing should be an impediment for unification," German noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 January 2019)
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