Patriarch Kirill Visited St. Nicholas Convent in Horodok

On August 3 His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, making pastoral and pilgrimage trip in the boundaries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, arrived to the St. Nicholas Convent of Horodok near Rivne. His Holiness was accompanied by Deputy Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchy Archbishop Varsonofy of Saransk and Mordova, Chair of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Head of Administrative Secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchy Bishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk.

In front of the church of the Nativity of Christ the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was greeted by His Beatitude Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Mother Superior of the monastery hegumeness Mykhayila (Zayats) with nuns, bishops and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Governor of the Rivne region V.I. Matchuk, Chair of the city council of Rivne A.I. Danilchuk and other officials, numerous residents of Horodok and pilgrims.
In the church His Holiness addressed all those attending with Archpastoral word. As a token of gratitude for the labors taken Patriarch Kirill bestowed panagia on Archbishop Varfolomiy of Rivne and Ostroh. As a keepsake of the visit he donated the icon of St. Nicholas, the Holy Hierarch and Wonderworker to the convent.

In her response hegumeness Mykhayila thanked His Holiness for his visit to the abode and presented him a paschal egg with an image of the Convent of St. Nicholas in Horodok.
Then His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia headed for the Church of St. Elias, and addressed numerous believers with words of greeting and instruction.

”I heartily greet all of you, my dear, on this day. Formevisiting it is a great feastto visit this holy place, to see you and your lightsome faces, your faith, your firmness in standing for the Church. May God protect all of you!
Today in the monastery of Korets, addressing the young students of the choirmaster class, I said: “Work in the name of the Church, keep its unity”. We wil never be able to do what God does for us. God is never under an obligation to us, but we are always indebted to Him. And when we live according to the faith, when we protect the church unity, we do our small but significant part, in response to which the Lord will give us health, strength, worldly wisdom and support us in difficult circumstances of our life. Keep the Orthodox faith, for in itisour confirmation. Amen! May God protect you!’

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church worshipped the venerated copy of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kozelshansk. This image is a gift of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The copy of the Wonderworking icon was delivered to Horodok on January 11, 2000, and in commemoration of this event local celebration was introduced in the monastery.

In the course of the festive dinner with participation of His Holiness Kirill there was a concert, taking part in which were children’s creative team, monastery choir and a group of bandura-players consisting of the convent nuns. Having performed a series of compositions, the participants gifted His Holiness with a bandura – an old Ukrainian string instrument.

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