The annual meeting has been held for volunteers of the Penitentiary Pastorate of the UGCC

On February 27, 2021, The annual meeting of volunteers of the UGCC Penitentiary Pastorate took place in the premises of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC near the Patriarchal Cathedral on the occasion of the Day of Special Attention to Prison Ministry.

The Day of special attention to the prison ministry falls every year on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The purpose of this event was to summarize the past year and to present new opportunities for volunteers of the UGCC in the penitentiary sphere. The prison mission helps the faithful to understand better the vocation of Christians to be the "salt of the earth".

A year has passed since the Ukrainian prison system went through a period of no visits from outside. This was because of quarantine restrictions imposed due to the risk of coronavirus infection among prisoners. However, the quarantine restrictions did not lead to the complete cessation of pastoral care in Ukrainian penitentiaries. Volunteers cared for the needs of women prisoners, especially women with children under 3 years of age. Video conferences were held for distance learning of volunteers, charitable gatherings were organized to support calendar events (Easter and Savior's Baskets for Prisoners, Cossack Hart), to prepare an Art exhibition-contest of fine arts of prisoners "Called to Freedom". There were regular meetings in Zoom with the inmates of the Kovel and Kremenchug juvenile colonies with student volunteers with the assistance of the head of the Center for Academic Pastoral Care, Fr. Yaroslav Pavlyuk.

Volunteers from Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk were able to remotely join the meeting in Kyiv via Zoom. The head of the Pastoral Department of the UGCC in the penitentiary system of Ukraine, Constantin Panteley, read the Address of His Eminence Mykhailo Koltun on the occasion of the Day of Special Attention to Prison Ministry. During the meeting, the volunteers heard about opportunities and areas of ministry that could be of interest to the maximum number of believers seeking themselves in various church initiatives:

- support for victims of crime and their families;

- participation in probation volunteering;

- days of spiritual renewal for penitentiary staff and their families;

- correspondence with prisoners;

- participation in prisoner reintegration programs.

At the end of the meeting, volunteers visited the gallery of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ to write reviews to the authors of the exhibition "Called to Freedom".

Penitentiary pastorate of the UGCC