Category: Past Conferences

Fr. Peter Galadza, Mr. George Weigel, Fr. Andriy Chirovsky

Organized by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
15 November 2014

On November 15, 2014, the Sheptytsky Institute sponsored an all-day international conference at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. The conference was entitled “Religion in the Ukrainian Public Square: An Analysis of the EuroMaidan and Its Aftermath.” Observers have noted the prominence of religious figures and practices during the uprising that began in Kyiv last year. More striking was the thoroughly ecumenical and interfaith dimension of this religious presence. Orthodox of various jurisdictions, Roman and Greco-Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Protestants were all visible in one way or another on the EuroMaidan platform supporting the non-violent struggle against a corrupt, Kremlin backed government. The conference sponsored by the Sheptytsky Institute brought together scholars of Orthodox, Greco-Catholic, Roman Catholic and Jewish backgrounds, as well as a specialist on Islam, to analyze this phenomenon.

The highpoint of the conference was the lecture by renowned public scholar, George Weigel, the author of more than twenty books. Weigel is the famous biographer of Pope John Paul II, and a frequent commentator regarding Catholicism on network TV. He stressed the importance of Westerners learning from the Ukrainian Maidan, and conversely Ukrainians learning from the experience of the West.

Organized by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

Co-sponsored by:

University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
17-18 October 2014

On October 17 and 18, the Sheptytsky Institute sponsored an international conference marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Vatican II Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches. The conference took place at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. The five plenary speakers were Brian Daley, SJ of Notre Dame University, who spoke on “The Eastern Catholic Churches – A Roman Catholic Perspective Fifty Years after Orientalium ecclesiarum.” This plenary and the other four plenary lectures were all followed by three presentations that took place in smaller sessions simultaneously. A total of fourteen such presentations were made. The smaller sessions were also video recorded whenever they took place in the same hall as the plenary lectures.

The next plenary speaker was the former dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, Fr. John Erickson. His topic was “The Eastern Catholic Churches – An Orthodox Perspective Fifty Years after Orientalium ecclesiarum.” That evening, Fr. Elias Manon of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) spoke on the history and present work of CNEWA.

The next day began with the First Hour. After this, Melkite Bishop Nicholas Samra of Newton, MA, spoke on “Eastern Catholicism in the Middle East Fifty Years after Orientalium ecclesiarum.” During the afternoon, Professor Thomas Bird of the City University of New York presented a lecture on “Eastern Catholicism in North America Fifty Years after Orientalium ecclesiarum.”

Finally, Deacon Roman Zaviyskyy, the dean of theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, presented a power point on the present situation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine.

One of the high points of the conference was the Vigil Service (Vespers and Matins) beautifully sung by the parishioners of St. Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church of Brampton, Ontario, where Fr. Roman Galadza is pastor. Trinity College (Anglican) chapel was the site of the very prayerful three-hour service.