By Quinton Amundson

The Catholic Register

Bishop Bryan Bayda’s hope for the first annual Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada Bishop’s Dinner on Sept. 11 is for the proceeds to help this faith community meaningfully advance key pro-family initiatives.

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Chiefly, the 64-year-old senior clerical leader wants to establish a family and life office to ensure the Toronto and Eastern Canada eparchy can efficiently and confidently carry out educational initiatives and campaigns for the clergy and laity about family values.

“I want to jump on this right away because it is an urgent need,” said Bayda of the event taking place at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont. “It's been on my heart for some time now as I took over in the Eparchy of Toronto in 2022.”

Instituting new family centres and enhancing existing pro-family movements and organizations with better direction, statutes and vocations are other courses of action Bayda said the eparchy could take to nurture a Christian understanding of matrimony and the family unit. Additionally, an eparchial marriage preparation course is to be developed that will provide guidance about the theological, psychological, bioethical and Christian beauty aspects of marriage.

All the aforementioned objectives outlined by Bayda were included among the core resolutions agreed upon by the 7,000 clerics who attended the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Synod of Bishops in Rome from June 29 to July 10. Bayda intends to seek opportunities to collaborate with his eparchy and archeparchy counterparts in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and New Westminster in advancing pro-family endeavours.

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The gathering in Rome afforded Bayda an opportunity to connect again with Cardinal Mykola Bychok, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals this past December by the late Pope Francis. The shepherd of the Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia, became the youngest member of the College of Cardinals — 44 at the time of his elevation — and was the youngest elector in the 2025 papal conclave.

Bayda invited Bychok months ago to be a special guest speaker at the bishop’s dinner. The Saskatoon-born bishop anticipates Bychok, who hails from Ternopil in western Ukraine, to shed light on how Pope Leo intends to work with the UGCC in the months and years to come.

“He might have a better insight than I as to what the Holy Father is prepared to do and maybe some of his direction he wants to offer us as a Church, and how that is going to synergize with our Synod led by our Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk,” suggested Bayda.

Bayda, Bychok and the other religious leaders present at the UGCC Synod of Bishops were also asked to contemplate how to support families during wartime. A pastoral letter from the gathering called Persevering In Hope, Strong In Love: The Ukrainian Family In Time Of War was published earlier this month. The title theme statement was inspired by Romans 12:12.

This letter, penned by Shevchuk, touches upon how priests “have gained significant practical pastoral experience in ministering to families” during the three-and-a-half years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. He wrote that “monasteries have become oases of spiritual healing for many,” and he urged all parishes around the world to emulate this example and serve as “places of healing, of spiritual and humanitarian support for families.”

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Shevchuk also echoes the universal call to establish communities that are pilgrims of hope.

Learn more about the first annual Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada Bishop’s Dinner by visiting ucet.ca.