St. Andrew Brotherhood holds annual meeting (02/05/06)

St. Andrew Brotherhood holds annual meeting

by Ihor Sawon

SOUTH BOUND BROOK, N.J. - The primary objective of St. Andrew Brotherhood is defined as the reunification of all parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. with Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriachate under the current leadership of Patriarch Filaret.

On Sunday, November 26, 2005, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Memorial Church, South Bound Brook, N.J., held its annual meeting with the Very Rev. Yurij Siwko, pastor and spiritual advisor to the brotherhood, attending and opening the meeting with a prayer.

The general membership of the brotherhood unanimously elected a new executive board, with the re-election of Ihor Sawon as president. The balance of the executive board consists of: Roman Hirniak, vice-president; Frank Beck, treasurer; Vitaliy Kurinnyy, Ukrainian secretary; Raymond Burns Jr., English secretary; and Volodymyr Hryhorenko and Wasyl Krasnobryzyj, board members.

The Auditing Committee consists of: Oleksij Shevchenko, Anatoly Gorloff and Vinamin Nesenjuk, while the Advisory Committee consists of Victor Babanskyj, Wasyl Doroshenko and Michael Shulha.

A considerable amount of time was spent by members of the brotherhood discussing the recent announcement from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, concerning the elevation of Archimandrite Andriy (Peshko) from Chicago to bishop and his assignment as an assistant to Metropolitan Constantine, primate of the UOC-U.S.A. Concerns of the brotherhood centered around the question of why Istanbul is appointing a bishop/assistant within the UOC-U.S.A. when the UOC-U.S.A. Constitution specifically vests this responsibility in the Sobor of the UOC-U.S.A.

Numerous questions were also raised concerning who the ultimate authority is on the elevation of bishops/metropolitans and whether the current action of the Ecumenical Patriarchate reaffirms the UOC-U.S.A. status as simply a "diocese" within the Church of Constantinople.

It was unanimously agreed by brotherhood members that we are currently not the "masters of our own house" and that all decision-making powers reside with a foreign Church located in Istanbul.

Further, considerable dismay was verbalized by the general membership to the news announcement from Istanbul referencing UOC-U.S.A. parishes as "belonging to the Ecumenical Patriarchate."

With the above news announcement from Istanbul. the newly re-elected president, Mr. Sawon, posed a question to the membership regarding what the brotherhood's aims and objectives should be in the future years.

After considerable discussion among the general brotherhood membership and input from the Very Rev. Siwko as to the status of the UOC-Canada and UAOC in Europe, the latter being under the spiritual leadership of Metropolitan Constantine, the membership unanimously passed a resolution outlining the main objective of the St. Andrew Brotherhood for the coming years.

The resolution reads as follows:

"The Brotherhood of St. Andrew Memorial Church recognizes its primary objective to be the re-unification of all Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in the United States and in Ukraine with our Mother Church in Ukraine, under the omofor of the Kyivan Patriarchate, currently under the leadership of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret, thereby establishing one 'Pomisna' Church which remains forever true to the patriotic ideals and vision of Patriarch Mstyslav."

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to reviewing last year's accomplishments and outlining plans for implementing the above resolution in 2006.

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