Ukrainian pastoralism in the conditions of choice (1921–1939). The citizen of priest Hryhorii Melnyk’s «pranks of fate» (1893–1939)

It is right said in “The Hero of the Daily life” (Delia Steinberg Guzmán) book that: “Sometimes our life throws us on the roadside. It doesn’t matter if you struggle for your survival or solve big dramas, but it manifests in many small failures, continuous fuss, daily problems. But much more often we feel like winners on the field of daily struggle; confidently, without any fear, is it good or tragic, we look to the future and we are waiting for what will happen and God to send us, as we are ready for it. This means to be the Hero of the Daily life…” The pastor Hryhorii Melnyk, the citizen of Podillia, Lavrivka, Podiebrady, is a real hero of our daily life. Belonging to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which was just developing; the guardianship of the congregation and, ultimately, personal survival in the difficult emigration’s conditions of the interwar Czechoslovakia - all this fell into the fate of one person. The pastor’s life, Father Hryhorii Melnyk, who has deliberately chosen a spiritual order, which was traditionally consisted of the accomplishment of Holy Sacraments, ordinances and other prayerful activities, preaching the Gospel as the foundation of the foundations and, in fact, of the pastoral life. However, a lot of that we can describe by the concept of «pranks of the fate», befell to the Father Hryhorii’s fate. This is his Ukrainiancentrism, due to which consciously had to go to conflicts with the higher ecclesiastical Czechoslovak hierarchy; this is "internal to external missionary", which are defined by the following two difficult questions: «What should the priest’s life look like? Specifically, how should he make money under those difficult conditions? And What was, actually, the priest's lifestyle at that time?»; and his knowledge of human souls with their diverse needs.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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