Special Graduation at St. Sophia Seminary

(Left to Right) Rev. Oleh Yukhymenko, Prof. Kenneth Cherney, Rev. Andriy Honcharuk, Prof. John Vogt

Seven years of postgraduate study received their reward on March 25 at St. Sophia Seminary. Andriy Honcharuk, who has served the ULC as pastor and currently is teaching part-time at the seminary, was granted the Master of Sacred Theology (STM) degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS). Professor Kenneth Cherney of WLS presented the diploma.

In his remarks at the presentation ceremony, Prof. Cherney said that this day was also a milestone for the Ukrainian Lutheran Church. The ULC looks forward, Prof. Cherney commented, to the day when it stands on its own feet and is no longer dependent on help from sister churches in other parts of the world. Honcharuk’s STM degree is a step toward that goal. It signals to sister churches in our worldwide CELC fellowship that the ULC has gained another man who has the education and degree to teach theological courses on the seminary level.

Pastor Honcharuk’s credits for this degree were earned through several trips to the U.S. to attend summer quarter classes at WLS. Credits toward such a degree can also be earned through courses in St. Sophia Seminary’s summer quarter each June. In June 2008, a total of 27 pastors and theological students from throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia attended St. Sophia’s summer quarter.