Head of Order

Who is the Head of the Order and Guardian of the Great House of Gothia, the See of St. John of Gothia?

The Rev'd Fr. Yuriy Yurchyk of the Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Donets is Head and Guardian of the Great House of Gothia, the See of St. John of Gothia.

Fr. Yuriy began his priestly ministry in the Orthodox Church in the early 90s in Donetsk, when he was ordained as a deacon and priest. He created the first parishes of the Diocese of Donetsk of the Patriarchate of Kyiv, and with his participation, the first priests were ordained.

His idea was to create a multicultural Diocese as a successor to the ancient Orthodox Metropolia of Gothia and Kaffa, which ceased its activities and was destroyed by Russia in the 18th century in the south of the modern Donetsk region.

Moreover, from the beginning, he has been very open to ecumenical contact with other Christian churches and other religions.

Fr. Yuriy grew up in two traditions: Roman Catholic and Orthodox. He was born in Kamenets Podolsky in Western Ukraine and attended a Catholic parish in Donetsk, where his family moved back in the 80s of the last centuries. In Donetsk, he began to attend the Orthodox Church since no Catholic parish existed. This partly explains his Ecumenical, Universal vision of the church.

Fr. Yuriy became the Archbishop of Donetsk and Mariupol. Nine years later, he and some priests of his Diocese joined the Roman Catholic Church.

In the Roman Catholic Church, he does not fulfill the duties of a Bishop, although he continues to be one and is recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church. As a Bishop, he performs priestly responsibilities and works in the humanitarian field.

In the wake of the war, he established the Ecumenical Order, a testament to his commitment to preserving the legacy of the ancient Metropolis of Gothia and Kaffa. Under the patronage of St. John of Gothia, a revered Bishop of this historic Church, this order was founded to promote unity and understanding among different religious communities.