CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Ukraine: St. Clement’s relics exposed in Yalta"There is great significance in the event taking place in this small church. This is the return of Pope Clement to the Crimean soil, where he sacrificed his life for preaching Christ’s Gospel". With these words His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), presented the relics of St. Clement I on 22 July, exposed for public veneration in a new Church of the Holy Trinity in Yalta, Ukraine. In his homily, his Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized the unique role that St. Clement played in the history of the establishment and development of the Kyivan Church. "For us, heirs of Kyivan Christianity, the figure of St. Clement is especially significant, because he is a witness of Christ’s one and indivisible Church of the first millennium. He reminds all of us that St. Volodymyr blessed Rus at a time when the Church was still undivided. And to this unity, to which he once invited the Corinthians, he invites the Ukrainians also today", affirmed the head of the UGCC, expressing hope that the small church in Yalta with the relics of the saint Pope "will be a call for unity to all Christians, regardless of their confessional affiliation, because his cult is particularly treasured in Ukraine by both Orthodox and Greek-Catholics".Hungary: prayer for the victims of the roma holocaust The Community of St. Egidio organizes an ecumenical prayer meeting in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Budapest, Hungary, to mark the International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day on 2 August. The faithful of the Catholic Church and Protestant communities will gather on 3 August under the guidance of Mons. János Székely, auxiliary bishop of the Esztergom-Budapest archdiocese who is responsible for the pastoral care of Roma people within the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Participants in the prayer meeting will commemorate the genocide committed by the Nazis against thousands of Roma and Sinti people during World War II, as well as the events of the night of 2 August 2009, when series of murders of six Roma culminated with the killing of Mária Balogová in her own house in the village of Kisléta, as a result of ethnic hatred and racism. The faithful of various Christian denominations will join in prayer "for the peace of victims and the souls of all people, asking God to grant Europe a future without violence and disdain".Slovakia: sacred music and liturgy in Bratislava"A unique opportunity to soak in the sacred music in the space for which it was born" – with these words Mons. Stanislav Zvolenský, archbishop of Bratislava and president of the Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia, invites people to indulge in the atmosphere of the 3rd International Organ Festival in the St. Martin’s Cathedral in Bratislava, due to take place from 8 August to 13 September. The event will have a special flavour thanks to the Year of Ss. Cyril and Methodius which started on 5 July, and visitors will be offered concerts of sacred music performed by renowned artists from Slovakia and abroad. "Whilst the main role of an organ in the church is to accompany the liturgy, we also need to mention its evangelizing dimension by means of culture", explains Mons. Zvolenský, emphasizing the main message of the Organ Festival: "to help people to open up towards God’s influence through the tones of sacred music". The program will include performances of works by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Wagner, Grieg, Gigout, Chopin, Janacek, Rheinberger, Liszt and many other composers.
