Message from Patriarch Sviatoslav for March 5, 2022

Our Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church traditionally prescribes abstention from meat and dairy products for the entire duration of the Great Fast and Holy Week and this rule is still kept in monasteries. The following are the minimal Lenten regulations today, but the lay faithful are encouraged to live according to this historic rule of abstention as much as they can physically and spiritually. Hence, you are invited to follow the tradition as you are physically able given your age and health and work situation.

First Day of the Great Fast (Clean Monday) – Abstention from meat and dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Fasting is obligatory.

First Week of the Great Fast – Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Abstention from dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged.

Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast – Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Abstention from dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged. Abstention from meat and dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged on Mondays during Lent as well.

Fasting regulations of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church —Definitions

Abstinence means that we do not eat a certain type of food or any other foods that have that as an ingredient.

Fasting means that we eat fewer food items. A general rule is that for a day of fast, we eat no more than one full meal and two smaller meals (snacks) that put together do not equal a full meal.

Meat is to be understood as including not only the flesh, but also those parts of warm-blooded animals that cannot be rendered, i.e., melted down, e.g., the liver, etc. Meat gravy or soup made from meat is included in this prohibition.

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Donating to help people in Ukraine

February 27, 2022February 28, 2022

You can donate on the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s website www.ukrarcheparchy.us, and click on Donate through PAYPAL and select “WAR VICTIMS AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN UKRAINE”.

Write a check to the “Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia” and send it to the office at 810 North Franklin Street, Philadelphia PA 19123. Please write on the check “Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine”.

There are no small or large donations. But your donation can change someone’s life for the better. The Lord God will repay the happy donor a hundredfold. Pray for the people of the war victims! May the Lord bless you and our brothers and sisters in Ukraine!

Let us keep each other in prayer as well as Ukraine.

Community gathered today in support of Ukraine

February 27, 2022February 27, 2022

The community gathered in the church hall to support Ukraine in her current suffering. Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike. The rally started with praying Psalm 31 and concluded with a prayer offered by Fr Iura Godenciuc.

We we were honored by the Senator Richard Blumenthal, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Governor Ned Lamont and Mayor Justin Elicker.