UOC Primate Made First Visit to Diocese of Shepetivka

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

On October 8-9 the two-day archpastoral visit was made by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr to the Diocese of Shepetivka.

On Thursday, October 8, at the borders of Khmelnytskyi region the Archpastor and accompanying persons were met by the diocesan administrator, Bishop Volodymyr of Shepetivka and Slavuta, the regional authority representatives and God-loving flock.

At the beginning the Primate called to the main church of the diocese, dedicated to St Michael the Archangel in Shepetivka.

Greeting Metropolitan Volodymyr in the native land of Khmelnytskyi, Bishop Volodymyr of Shepetivka thanked him for the visit and offered him as a keepsake the icon of the Holy and Equal-to-the Apostles Prince Volodymyr – the heavenly patron of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Thereafter His Beatitude attended the memorial complex Memory Field in the second cathedral city of the Diocese – Slavuta, where the remains of the soldiers from the countries participating in the war of 1941-1945, who deceased on the Right-Bank Ukraine, and laid flowers to the memorial sign for the repose of the souls of the deceased defenders of the Motherland.

Then the Archpastor headed to the spiritual center of the second cathedral city of the diocese – the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

There His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr addressed the faithful with a word of instruction, in which he called those attending to love each other, thus having possibility to know and love God.

The diocesan bishop offered His Beatitude the icon of the Mother of God “Ostrobramska” as a prayerful memory of the visit to the city.

That day His Beatitude also made a call to the city administration of Slavuta, where he met with a city head Vasyl Sydor, whom he gave an icon of the Mother of God as a blessing. Besides, the Archpastor had a meeting with the heads of industrial enterprises of the city and region, whom he gave his blessing.

By the end of the first day of stay at the Diocese of Shepetivka the Primate attended the Monastery of the Nativity of Theotokos in the village of Horodyshche.

On Friday, October 9, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church performed rite of consecration of the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Chizyvka, Iziaslav disctrict of Khmelnytskyi region.

Concelebrating with His Beatitude were the Deputy Abbot of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Archbishop Pavel of Vyshgorod, Bishop Volodymyr of Shepetivka and Slavuta, Bishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi, Bishop Alexander of Horodnytsia.

Upon completion of the Divine service His Beatitude addressed the faithful with a word of instruction:

“Today we have consecrated together this holy place, so that it was sacred till the end of times and so that the people visited it. The church is the most sacred and important place on our sinful earth. The church is our school of piety and the hospital where we get treatment, the church is a place of meeting with God, His Mother and all saints. May the blessing of the Holy Hierarch Nicholas always rest on this church and his holy intercession be for those coming here”, said the Primate.

As a keepsake of his visit the Archpastor offered the church parish the Icon of St Spyridon, the Holy Hierarch and Wonderworker and a reliquary with pieces of relics of the Venerable Fathers of the Kyiv Caves.

Besides, His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr marked with the church distinctions the church ktetors and constructors. In particular, the Archpastor conferred the church order in honor of “1020 Years of Baptism of Kyivan Rus” on Oleksiy Panko and the order of “450 Years of Bringing of Pochayiv Icon of Theotokos to Volyn” on Natalia Panko.

The wooden St. Nicholas Church was built at the initiative and expense of the native of Chyzhivka Natalia Panko in the place of the former St Basil Church destroyed at the times of atheist power in the 30-ties of the previous century.

The site for church construction was blessed in the spring this year and almost in half a year the new comfortable wooden church with a bell tower was erected.

Maxim Sydorenko

Snaps:fotolitopys.in.ua

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