On May, 7 in Kiev the all-Ukrainian Congress of “Mother in prayer” Christian groups took place. Representatives of all Ukrainian exarchates and dioceses and the guests from abroad participated in the event. This meeting gather together 200 persons. They prayed in the Patriarchal Cathedral at matins and liturgy celebrated by Right Reverend fr. Bogdan (Dzurakh). At the sermon fr. Bogdan mentioned about the unselfish, faithful love which could help people in hard times. Nowadays the spirit of treason makes people blind, leads them to seek their own profits, disables people in doing serious relations with others. At the end of the liturgy coordinator of “Mother in prayer” V. Chmelik presented to fr. Bogdan round loaf decorated with grape leaves as a symbol of Christ, embroideries and reproductions of three icons of Our Lady. After the Mass fr. Bogdan had a speech named “Spiritual maternity” in which he underlined the importance of the role of spiritual development and expressed the hope that the Year of defense of spiritual world of a child holding in the Ukraine by nine Christian churches should become a stimulus for mothers’ prayer. On May 9-11 in Ukraine the XXII International Family Congress takes place. This year its topic is “Family is the community of love”. This meeting continues the series of analogical events holding all over the world beginning from the last decades of XX cent. The main aim of the Congress is discussion and solution the problems connected with the family and matrimony in the aspect of Christian values. It opens a way to meet and to exchange the experience not only for individuals but also for the organizations working with the families. Metropolitan Commission on the family problems (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) in coordination with some funds and experts planned to hold such an event to present the Christian vision of the family on the state level, to analyze the problems of family and matrimony in Ukraine, to exchange the experience of managing the similar problems on state and ecclesial levels with different countries. It is planned that in XXII Congress the representatives of all Ukrainian Christian churches and believers of other confessions (e.g. Jews and Moslems), state and public organizations and media will take part.
