Update: This program aired on March 18, 2021 and was recorded. Please view it on HMML's YouTube channel.

The work of HMML is based on the premise that we must listen to the voices of the past and present in order to understand ourselves, each other, and the complex world in which we all live.

Father Columba Stewart, executive director of HMML, stated in his 2019 Jefferson Lecture on the humanities: “We are at great risk of losing the capacity to listen, and therefore losing our ability to understand.”

Inspired by this call to action, HMML developed a series featuring cultural preservation partners and leaders from around the world, interviewed by Fr. Columba. HMML will produce three programs for the 2021 series, which we are calling To Listen: A Global Journey.

The next program in our series will be broadcast on March 18, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. CT, and will feature Borys Gudziak, the current Archeparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. His compelling and inspirational personal journey helps tell the story of modern Ukraine.

Abp. Borys has been involved in the reemergence of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church since 1989, working with communities and leaders who bore witness to numerous government regimes changes in a single lifetime. He was instrumental in the founding of a Catholic university in L’viv—one of the first since the fall of the Soviet Republic—and participated in the Orange Revolution. Fluent in seven languages, Abp. Borys travels globally offering perspectives on theology, history, spirituality, education, society, and the current challenges in Ukraine.

Abp. Borys was a key figure in HMML establishing manuscript preservation projects in Ukraine, including at the Vasili Stefanyk National Library, the L’viv Historical Museum, and the Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum. The history of Ukraine and Abp. Borys’ deep relationship to it highlights the essence of why cultural heritage preservation matters.

The programs are free and open to the public, presented via Zoom Webinar. Advanced registration is required. People who are interested but not available on March 18 can still register and receive a link to view the program later.

“In my travels for HMML, I meet extraordinary people and learn from them about their culture and present experience,” says Fr. Columba. “This series gives me the opportunity to introduce these extraordinary people and their stories with a wider audience, as well as to ask questions I never had the chance to ask before.”

To register and for more information about this program, visit hmml.org/programs/events.