The annual Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which was held in Philadelphia (USA) from September 27 to October, 6, 2007, has elected new members to the Permanent Synod. The Fathers of the Synod, after carrying out the appropriate procedure, confirmed the list of members of the Permanent Synod of Bishops of the UGCC: Archbishop Ihor (Voznyak), Bishop Paul (Chomnycky), Bishop David (Motiuk), and Bishop Vasyl’ (Semenyuk). Moreover, there was confirmed the list of the deputies of members of the UGCC Permanent Synod of Bishops: Bishop Vasyl’ (Ivasyuk), Bishop Yaroslav (Pryriz), Bishop Wlodzimierz (Juszczak), and Bishop Valdomiro (Koubetch). Information about this can be read in the Resolutions of the Patriarchal Synod of UGCC Bishops.
The Permanent Synod consists of five persons: the Head of the UGCC is the head of the Permanent Synod. Three bishops, members of the Permanent Synod, are elected by the Patriarchal Synod, and the other one is appointed by the Major Archbishop. The Permanent Synod is elected for a five-year term. Moreover, in case of the incapacity of some member of the Permanent Synod to take part in the Synod’s work, deputies are elected. Usually, the sessions take place four times a year. Three of them are conducted in Ukraine and the fourth one abroad (such sessions previously have been held in Poland, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and other countries).
“We have three different types of synods,” explained His Beatitude Lubomyr in an interview for Radio Voskresinnya (“Resurrection”). There is the Metropolitan Synod. We use such a term to describe a meeting of those bishops who serve on the territory of Ukraine. A second synod is the so-called Permanent Synod. This is a group of four bishops who are advisers of the Major Archbishop and gather together a few times a year to discus current matters. Properly, the Synod in the full meaning of this word is that meeting where are present all of the bishops who belong to our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and who serve within this Church, wherever it may exist.”
Information Department of the UGCC
Source: www.ugcc.org.ua