On July 16, 2022, Luka Zgoba, Secretary of the Vicariate of the UOC-KP in the USA and Canada, met with Ordinary Bishop of the Western Deanery of the Polish People’s Catholic Church Yaroslav (Jerry) Rafalko. The meeting took place at the Cathedral of All Saints in Chicago, Illinois.

This was announced by the hierarch of the UOC-KP Luka Zgoba on his Facebook page.

“This meeting marked the beginning of an ecumenical dialogue at a high church level between the bishops of the fraternal Slavic peoples, who have a large number of believers in the United States and Canada. The historic meeting lasted about three hours. The parties discussed a number of important issues of the development of the two churches, parish life, spiritual education, the development of interfaith relations in modern conditions, ensuring the personnel potential of the Polish and Ukrainian churches, the creation of religious institutions, the protection of Ukrainian refugees and their children,” the message says.

“The special feature of the interaction of the hierarchs was manifested in the complex coordination of projects for the development of church parishes and educational institutions in six states at once: Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Florida. Bishop Luka asked to join the Ukrainian children to the children’s camps of the Polish People’s Church under the patronage of Orthodox priests of the Kyiv Patriarchate. To which Bishop Yaroslav immediately agreed, giving the necessary instructions for the implementation of this humanitarian project… it was proposed to create a Theological Seminary for the training of the clergy in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Further directions of interaction between Ukrainian, Polish and American professors were also discussed. It is planned to hold a conference with the participation of Ukrainian and Polish clergy, as well as the formation of joint cultural events,” the UOC-KP vicariate in the USA and Canada reports.

With donated funds, Polish believers and clergy purchased an ambulance and sent it to Ukraine. In total, over the past four months, they have raised about eighty thousand dollars to support Ukraine. The outstanding role of Bishop Yaroslav (Jerry) Rafalko is due to the fact that it was he who became the first Polish bishop in the United States – a native of his native land – Bialystok.

As a result, it was arranged for Luka Zgoba to visit a Polish parish in Miami, Florida, where a large Ukrainian community lives.

Earlier it was reported about the visit of the Polish clergy to the Cathedral of the UOC-KP in Philadelphia.