Orthodox Church of Ukraine launches own app

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has launched its own mobile application, "My Church."

The app is available on Google Play and App Store.

My Church has five sections, including a map of nearby churches, calendar of religious holidays and important events, church news, a list of prayers, and a user profile.

In case users wish to discuss spiritual life, an online chat with the priest is offered.

According to the OCU website, the application complements a number of communication projects, including the church's social profiles and print media – the local church magazine and the all-Ukrainian newspaper My Church. The application can now be downloaded for free from Google Play and App Store.

The app was presented at the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy on Wednesday. With the blessing of Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, the new product was presented by OCU spokesman, Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn.

"We live in a time when the vast majority of our fellow citizens own mobile devices and use the Internet. On the one hand, the church is an institution that lives in a timeless dimension because by its nature it is of divine origin. But at the same time, it is an institution of people because it unites people. And the very word 'Church' means 'assembly of the called.' One of the Church's tasks is to unite and communicate the faithful. In fact, the Church has long used various achievements of civilization to spread the word of God and spread faith. This is the first app by the OCU, which brings together several diverse topics, and based on which the Church plans to further develop its presence in the digital space. To us, the first release of the app is also a test as we want to hear the faithful, learning what information about the Church and from the Church they would like to have in their smartphone. Starring today, for our next release, we plan to implement more opportunities, first of all, spiritual support, supplementing the calendar with sermons of His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy and interesting information on the history of the holidays. The app, as a living organism, will be constantly updated and supplemented," said Archbishop Yevstratiy.

"However," he said, "communication through the application, like any virtual communication, cannot and will not replace for the faithful personal communication with their priest, prayer in their temple and participation in worship and sacraments."