UKRAINE, February 8, 2007 — While Ukraine’s three major Orthodox jurisdictions find themselves unable to agree on certain matters, they are unanimous in their support for Bible work and for the Ukrainian Bible Society. Indeed, each has expressed this support in a very visible way.
Most recently, an interconfessional meeting held at the Bible Society’s offices in Lviv on December 20 included the presentation to General Secretary Roman Vovk of an Order of St. Andrew by Father Makariy, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. This award was granted in recognition of ‘fruitful and sincere partnership’ between this Church and the Bible Society.
Similar recognition had already been given to the Bible Society by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church– Moscow Patriarchate on October 28 in the form of an Order of St. Nestor the Chronicler presented by Metropolitan Mytrofan to both Mr Vovk and Board President Anatoliy Glukhovskyy. This coincided with celebrations to mark both Bible Day and the 15th anniversary of the Bible Society. Earlier, in April 2005, Mr Vovk received an order of St. Michael from His Holiness the Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus’-Ukraine Filaret, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate. This Church leader further demonstrated his interest in Bible Society work by visiting the Society’s Southern Region offices in Kherson in September.
In addition to receiving recognition in the form of awards, the Bible Society reports that it enjoys the consistent support of all 14 denominations that make up its Board. A recent example of this took the form of Church leaders appealing to the government to tackle the issue of taxes on imported Scripture items. Furthermore, several leading Churches have asked the Bible Society to produce Bibles for them and have invited it to revise their existing translations in order to bring them into line with the Bible Society’s standards. All Churches have also expressed their willingness to provide representatives on the new Bible translation team that is currently being set up.
“All these actions by Churches and religious organisations, along with their active participation in various projects, especially those relating to Bible Day, are proof that the Bible Society is moving in the right direction towards implementing its main goal of making all the Churches actively involved in Bible ministry,” concludes the Bible Society.
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