UKRAINIANS in Bolton are bidding farewell to their parish priest who has been appointed to one of the most important posts within their church in Britain.

Father Andriy Choma has worked among the Ukrainian community in Bolton as well as Leigh, Preston and Blackburn for the last 22 years, having previously been a priest in Coventry and Bradford.

But now the 49-yearold priest, who is originally from Nottingham, has accepted a request from the head of Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain, Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, to become the national administrator of the church.

“It is a great honour.

After the bishop, in effect, he will be second in command,” said Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn, a spokesman for the Bolton branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Britain.

Bolton has a sizeable, but dwindling community of Ukrainians who made their home here after the Second World War and second and third generations still keep proud links with the Ukraine.

“Fr Andriy has been a wonderful priest. Folk are really upset that he is going,” said Mr Tymchyshyn.

The Ukrainian community will bid the priest farewell at a special mass at the All Saints Ukrainian Church in All Saints Street, Bolton, on December 12 when they will also welcome the man who is to be their new priest, Father Yevhen Nebesnyak.

Father Yevhen was from Manchester and has spent most of his career running seminars for boys and young men who are considering a vocation to the priesthood.

It will be a homecoming for the 60-year-old priest, who is taking up his first position as a parish priest after working for many years in Rome and Lviv in the Ukraine.