It is important that the presentation of the unique Gospel was attended by representatives of all Orthodox jurisdictions who worked together on the publication.
Gospel-aprakos is a type of liturgical books of the Holy Scriptures, the text of which is arranged not in a sequential order, but according to the annual calendar schedule of liturgical readings, starting from Easter Sunday.
This is the first Gospel-aprakos in Ukrainian for several centuries, a new, improved translation from Greek, published in the Orthodox environment for liturgical use, following the example of the Greek liturgical tradition.
According to the words Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Ukraine, Bishop of Komansky Mykhailo, nThere is one authoritative translation for all Churches, of the “synodal” type.
So, this translation provides two opportunities at the same time: to try a new translation in worship and home reading, and a new for modern Ukraine structure of the Gospel text in liturgical use.
The ultimate goal of the process started now is to translate the liturgical Apostle and the entire Gospel, and in such a way that the text is accepted by all Christian denominations in Ukraine.
Now, Ukrainian translations of past centuries sometimes differ so much that the same expression can acquire a completely different meaning in different translators. That is why the citation of the Gospel passages is different – depending on the author of the translation.
Since the circulation is small – only 1000 copies, an electronic version was developed in parallel, which can be downloaded from the Stauropygia website and installed on any type of gadget. One of the main advantages of the electronic version is the in-text interactive links. Download and test: https://bit.ly/3WClpjf
The Ukrainian evangelical text for this edition was chosen to be a translation that began to be implemented by an initiative group during the time of living memory Metropolitan of Kyiv Volodymyr Sabodan from 2012 to 2015. At the time of the group’s work, all its members jurisdictionally belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, later a large part of them joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The presentation took place in St. Andrew’s Church. Part of the first edition has already been reserved as charitable assistance for chaplains of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and will be transferred to the head of the military chaplaincy service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Oleksiy Tereshchuk.
The presentation was attended by representatives of Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions, in particular from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Metropolitan of Pereyaslav and Vishnevsky Oleksandr Drabynko and candidate of sciences in theology Protodeacon Vasyl Didorafrom the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — the first vice-rector of the Kyiv Academy and Seminary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archpriest Serhiy Yushchykfrom the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — head of the UGCC Commission to promote unity among Christians Father Ihor Shaban.
The appearance of another Ukrainian translation can be an impetus for the joint work of all Christian jurisdictions to create one version of the Holy Scriptures translated into Ukrainian, which would become equally authoritative for all.
Olga SKOTNIKOVA
