Conference of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion, and Culture "Icons, Liturgy and Church Renewal in Eastern Europe"

Ukrainian Catholic University , Lviv , Ukraine – May 10-17, 2004

All participants in the conference are strongly encouraged to visit the website of Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU): risu.org.ua and familiarize themselves in advance with the major confessions in Ukraine , the type of religious news distributed, and sections on liturgy or church in society.

Conference Program

Tuesday, May 11 (UCU)

3:45-5:15 Religion and Journalism in Ukraine (Conference Room)
Moderator: Natalya Klymovska

Wednesday, May 12 (Dnister)

8:30-10:30 Icons as liturgy, fine art, and historical artifact: academic training, production, conservation, restoration (Dnister Hotel Conference Room)
Moderator: Sister Victoriya Luka

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 The Use and Authority of Icons: Church Renewal and the Ecclesial Commission. Issue: what is a ‘real' icon and what will its restoration accomplish?
Moderator: Sister Victoriya Luka

Thursday, May 13 (UCU)

9:00-10:30 Liturgical Renewal (UCU Chapel)
Moderator: Vasyl Rudejko
“Stritennia”, “Krylos”, “Majsternia pisni”, “Sahmos”

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 Religious Education in Eastern Europe . The task is to consider the role of media and the arts in theological education (Conference Room)
Moderator: Fr. Marko Bliaza, SJ

Friday, May 14 (Dnister)

9:00-10:30 Scholarship on religion, art, and media in E Europe
Moderator: Mykhaylo Perun

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:00 Scholarship, continued

Local Organizers and Staff

Myroslav Marynovych (marynov@ucu.edu.ua) – Vice-Rector of UCU, Director of the Institute of Religion and Society, former political prisoner with the Helsinki group, 10 years in the gulag, civic leader, ecumenical advisor to Patriarch Lubomyr (Cardinal Husar), published translation of Church Documents on Social Communication

Prof. Jeffrey Wills (wills@ucu.edu.ua) – Vice-Rector of UCU, role similar to a provost in the US , formerly professor of Classics at the Univ. of Wisconsin

Sr. Victoria Luka (victoria@ucu.edu.ua) – iconographer and scholar of the theology of icons, licentiate in theology ( St. Paul Univ. , Ottawa )

Michael Petrovych – professor of liturgy, Director of Institute of Theological Terminology

Natalia Klymovska (klymovsk@ucu.edu.ua) – Director of the Information Office (press and public relations), moderator of panel on Religion and Journalism.

Mykhailo Perun – finished seminary in Lviv, now writing a doctorate at the Gregorian Univ. on social communication, organizer of various religious concerts in Lviv

Vasyl Rudeyko (jeretyk@yahoo.com) – formerly seminarian in Lviv, now writing a doctorate on liturgy at the Catholic Univ. of Eichstaett, teaches liturgy at UCU

Roman Rytsar (rytsar@ucu.edu.ua) – licentiate in Lublin , teaches Christology

Oksana Rybak (fisher@ucu.edu.ua) – assistant to the Rector, administrator of the conference

Guest participants

Gabriel Hanganu (Romania) – Oxford doctoral student in visual Anthropology working on a thesis on icons in Eastern Europe

Vlad Naumescu (Romania) – doctoral student in anthropology in Germany writing on Ukrainian and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches

Marek Blaza (Poland) – Jesuit, teaches in Poland and at UCU, wide experience in Eastern Europe

Roman Hurko (Canada) – composer, develop international working group of scholars and performers in Ukrainian sacred music

Bohdan Kuz (Kyiv) – director of the Vydubychi Church Chorus

Group from the Centrum Spirituality in Slovakia

• Fr. Milan Lach SJ
• Jan Burda SJ
• Tomas Majda
• Fr. Marcel Gajdos
• Simon Marincak.

The Center was founded to promote the Christian Unity especially in Slovakia , but also to explain the mentality of eastern Christian to the western one. Those were original intentions. Since the Center was founded during the communist times, all plans were merely theoretical. Nowadays, the Center has met various obstacles and its aim is to answer to various challenges. The first is to search for the religious identity of the Catholics of Byzantine Rite in Slovakia (so called Greek Catholics). They are in big minority and suffer from Latin preponderance (insertion of various Latin elements into their liturgical and religious traditions). So the Center should become the Institution that provides a scholarly work in the fields, such as Byzantine liturgy, liturgical music, history, theology, spirituality, canon law, etc.

Fr. Milan Lach SJ is a future student of the Pontifical Oriental Institute (he has focused on the studies of eastern spirituality) and a temporary Director of the Center. Jan Burda SJ, his religious fellow, is also a potential student of the PIO. Toams Majda studied in Olomouc ( Czech republic ) and is expert in the eastern dogmatic theology. Fr. Marcel Gajdos is specialist in liturgical texts and their translations, and Marincak works in the field of the liturgy and liturgical music.