NATIONAL CATECHETICAL COMMISSION MEETS IN WINNIPEG
August 30, 2016
The members of the National Catechetical Commission (NCC), which consists of representatives from all the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchies in Canada, met for a three-day conference at the Chancery Offices of the Archeparchy in Winnipeg August 23-25, 2016.
One of the items on their agenda was to formulate materials that could used for the presentation of the first part of the new catechism for the Ukrainian Catholic Church – “Christ our Pascha”. The catechism was actually promulgated by the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav together with the Synod of Bishops, in the summer of 2011. However, the English translation was finalized and published. and made available for distribution only this year. One of the reasons why the translation into the many languages of the Ukrainian Catholic Church throughout the world is not being rushed, is the effort to offer the most precise translation of the theological terminology used in the original text.
The eparchial representatives to the NCC are: Fr. Stephen Wojcichowski and Bernadette Mandrusiak from the Eparchy of Edmonton; Sr. Marijka Konderewicz, SSMI and Sr. Bonnie Komarnicki, SSMI from the Eparchy of Saskatoon; Fr. Andrij Chornenkyi from the Eparchy of New Westminster; Presbytera Iryna Galadza from the Eparchy of Toronto and the Archeparchy of Winnipeg’s Vicky Adams. As the host of this recent gathering of the NCC, Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak, OSBM also participated in some of the sessions.
Among the accomplishments at the August meeting was the finalizing of a powerpoint presentation, a list of study questions, as well as a video that incudes messages from His Beatitude Sviatoslav, as well as the head of the Patriarchal Catechetical Commission, Bishop Peter Stasiuk, CSsR and two professors from the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies that were among those that worked on the translation – Fr. Andrij Chirovsky and Fr. Peter Galadza.
The Commission has also begun work on a “glossary” of terminology used in the Catechism that will be helpful to many readers in better appreciating the text... terms such as “anaphora”, “deification”, “octoechos”, “epiclesis” etc.
As always happens, some ‘typos’ do get through the careful editing process, but a complete list of errata will also be issued by the Commission.
All these resources will soon be posted on a website accessable to the general public.
The Canadian National Catechetical Commission next meets on 14 September 2016. For a better idea of the work of the National Catechetical Commission and its vision for its work, read the report that it made in 2012 to Patriarchal Catechetical Commission based in Ukraine.
