That They May Be ONE
Uniting East and West
The Institute for Eastern Christian Studies is dedicated to the scholarly study of Eastern Christianity and how it applies to unifying with the West. We offer professional consultations, conduct research, educate students, provide information to the public through conferences and public lectures, and offer printed & digital publications.
One of the main educational opportunities is teaching Roman Catholic priests about the Divine Liturgy. We have found, over the years, that most western Catholics know very little about the Eastern Rites. By teaching priests about the Divine Liturgy they then will be able to teach their congregations about the East.
The more the Roman Catholic priest knows about the East and shares it with his congregation, the more easily it will be for East and West to unite.
St. Peter and St. Andrew
Our people are in shackles and our land in captivity, the enemy does not even allow us to pray... Great God, grant our land freedom, grant it fate and happiness, strength and power. Let us embrace one another and call each other Brother! Rise up all of you in defense of the rights of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, but also defend the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, destroyed with equal cruelty by the violent deeds of the foreign invader! Defend also all the other Christian and religious communities on Ukrainian soil, for they are all deprived of the basic freedom of conscience and religion, and they all suffer for their belief in One God!
The closest to us in faith and blood are our Orthodox brothers. We are united by the traditions of our native Christianity, common religious and national customs, and by a two-thousand year old culture! We are united by a common struggle for the originality of our native Church and for its full status of which the visible symbol will be a single Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Church!
All of us, both Catholics and Orthodox, are fighting for the raising up of our Church and for its spiritual strength in Ukraine and in all the countries where our faithful have settled. And all of us, while confessing Christ, are bearing our Lord’s heavy cross.
Pray, work and fight for the preservation of the Christian soul of everyone who belongs to the Ukrainian people, and for the whole Ukrainian nation, and ask the Almighty God to help us fulfill our longing for unity and our struggles for Church unity in the accomplishment of the Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Church!
Inspiration from Cardinal Slipyj
Our people are in shackles and our land in captivity, the enemy does not even allow us to pray... Great God, grant our land freedom, grant it fate and happiness, strength and power. Let us embrace one another and call each other Brother! Rise up all of you in defense of the rights of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, but also defend the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, destroyed with equal cruelty by the violent deeds of the foreign invader! Defend also all the other Christian and religious communities on Ukrainian soil, for they are all deprived of the basic freedom of conscience and religion, and they all suffer for their belief in One God!
The closest to us in faith and blood are our Orthodox brothers. We are united by the traditions of our native Christianity, common religious and national customs, and by a two-thousand year old culture! We are united by a common struggle for the originality of our native Church and for its full status of which the visible symbol will be a single Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Church!
All of us, both Catholics and Orthodox, are fighting for the raising up of our Church and for its spiritual strength in Ukraine and in all the countries where our faithful have settled. And all of us, while confessing Christ, are bearing our Lord’s heavy cross.
Pray, work and fight for the preservation of the Christian soul of everyone who belongs to the Ukrainian people, and for the whole Ukrainian nation, and ask the Almighty God to help us fulfill our longing for unity and our struggles for Church unity in the accomplishment of the Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Church!
The Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the exact same way whether you are Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox. This is where we are offering much study and deep investigations on how the Church is already united in the Divine Liturgy.
We, in our jurisdiction, have united through the efforts of Josyf Cardinal Slipyj when he established us. We are an example on how the Church is United as both East and West.
There are other things that are under investigation and scholarly conversation such as the filioque, papal infalibility, the Immaculate Conception and more. We have several documents that explain on how we can accept both positions and continue to be united.
The Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854, by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary's freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously non-dogmatically affirmed her freedom from personal sin.