Proposals to update the statute of the lay order of St. Basil the Great

Abstract

The article explores the historical and canonical development of the Charters and branches of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great during its history since its foundation by the Righteous Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in 1897 to the present day. The question of updating the Charter of the Order is being considered, in order to have a single updated Charter of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great for all members and proposals for updating the Charter of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great are submitted.

The conducted researches relate to the historical and canonical development of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great which was founded by the Righteous Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the time of the Dobromil's reform of the Basilian Order within the territories of Przemyśl, Lviv and Stanislaviv eparchies.

The author has attempted to collect information relating to the historical and canonical development of all Charters of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great from the time of the foundation of the Order: “Rules of St. Father N. Vasyl V. for Mirsky people” (1912, the second edition), “Charters of the Third Order of Saint Basil the Great” (1955), Charter III of the Order of Saint Basil the Great (underground period) and the Charter of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great” (1992) which was concluded for the members of the Order after the proclamation of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches by the Pope John Paul II in 1990.

The Lay Order, which was founded by the hegumen of the monastery of Saint Onuphrius in Lviv, father Andrey Sheptytsky, the Order of Saint Basil the Great, which at that time was called the Brotherhood of Law of Saint Basil the Great, had four branches: 1. Monastic communities of the Third Order. 2. Brotherhoods founded at the monastic churches. 3. Brotherhoods founded at the secular parish churches. 4. Priestly branch.

During the underground period of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (1946-1989), another branch of the Order functioned - centres of the Order, which were founded at the domestic churches. After the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church emerged from the underground in 1989, the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great had and currently has only two branches: the priestly branch and the centres of the Order which were founded at the monastic churches in Lviv, Zhovkva and Ivano-Frankivsk.

Proposals for updating the Charter of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great are made because there are two Charters, according to which more than 500 sisters and brothers of the Order spend their spiritual life in the Province of the Most Holy Savior in Ukraine - Charter III (the third) of the Order of Saint Basil the Great, which was concluded by the archbishop Yakiv Tymchuk, the Order of Saint Basil the Great, in the underground period of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the Charter of the Lay Order of Saint Basil the Great. The article provides a list of documents of the Church, from which proposals are made in order to have a single updated Charter for all members of the Order. An approved single updated Charter of the Lay
Order of Saint Basil the Great will promote the successful development of the Order in Ukraine and beyond its territory.