OCU receives Holy Fire from the hands of Boryspil airport employee
Epiphanius Dumenko receives the Holy Fire. Photo: pomisna.info
On April 19, 2020, the head of the OCU Epiphanius Dumenko received the Holy Fire at the Kiev-Vydubychi St. Michael Monastery in the capital from the hands of the Boryspil airport employee, the official website of the OCU reports.
According to the OCU, the Holy Light was delivered to Kiev "with the assistance of UIA and the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel."
The airline posted a video on its Facebook page in which the crew of the aircraft take out an amphora with the Holy Fire from the air show and pass it on to the Boryspil airport employee.
The UIA press service reported that “on Sunday morning, the UIA Boeing-767 aircraft delivered an amphora with the Holy Fire from Tel Aviv to Kiev in the morning. Valuable cargo will be handed over to representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to celebrate Easter services at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral and other temples.”
The message is posted on UIA's official Facebook page on April 19 at 10:29 a.m.
However, based on the information on the flightaware.com website, which contains information about all flights, it can be concluded that on April 19, Boryspil Airport did not accommodate planes departing from the Israeli David Ben Gurion Airport.
The day before, on April 18, there were two flights from Tel Aviv to Boryspil. One of them (arrived at 18:44) delivered the Holy Fire to Ukraine via the UOC delegation.
The second plane (Boeing 787-9), which arrived at 23:13, belongs to the Israeli company El Al and has nothing to do with UIA.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that “metropolitan” Epiphanius had invited the authorities to either bring the Holy Fire for all Churches or not to bring it at all and spend the money on charity instead.
Read also
UGCC cleric criticizes OCU head for awarding Greek Catholic officials
Hieromonk Yustyn Boiko of the Lviv Archeparchy called the awarding of church honors to officials a profanation and cited the example of an OCU order presented to a Greek Catholic official.
Expert who found no defamation in Dumenko’s remarks to face disciplinary action
An Interior Ministry research center has confirmed disciplinary measures against the expert whose findings supported what the Metropolitan’s representatives described as unfounded accusations by the OCU head against Metropolitan Theodosiy.
European Parliament condemns forced Islamization of children in Pakistan
The European Parliament has called on Pakistan to establish a mechanism to protect Christian families.
Church of the Presentation damaged by shelling in Russia’s Kursk Region
The newly built church in the village of Kulbaki, Glushkovo District, was completely gutted by fire after being struck by a projectile.
UOC priests take part in celebrations at Romania’s Putna Monastery
Clergy of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy took part in a festive service at the ancient shrine of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
TRC officers abduct priest of UOC's Zymne Monastery
The UOC cleric was reportedly taken by force to Lutsk.