UOC delegation goes on a pilgrimage to monasteries of Egypt

The UOC delegation in Egypt. Photo: vzcz.church.ua

On March 25, 2021, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, a pilgrimage trip of the delegation of monasticism of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the monasteries of Egypt began, reports the UOC Department for External Church Relations.

As part of the trip, it is planned to visit the monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, the monasteries of St. Paul of Thebes and Anthony the Great, the Christian shrines of Cairo, associated, among other things, with the stay of the Holy Family in Egypt. Also, the purpose of the pilgrimage of the Ukrainian monastic delegation is to get acquainted with the modern monastic life of the Coptic Church and develop relationships with it.

The delegation was headed by Metropolitan Arseniy (Yakovenko) of the Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra. It also included: the abbot of the monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Tserkovshchina tract, Bishop Tikhon (Sofiychuk) of Gostomel, Kyiv Eparchy; the abbot of the Annunciation Monastery of Nizhyn, Bishop Theodosius (Marchenko) of Ladan, Nizhyn Eparchy; monks of the Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra – Archimandrite Lazar (Tereshchenko) and Hieromonk Joseph (Georgitsa); monks of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – Archimandrite Agathon (Opanasenko) and Hieromonk Theophilus (Koshovenko); abbot of the Holy Spirit Skete of the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra, Abbot Hermogenes (Melnik).

Also, the delegation includes the head of the library of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary – Archimandrite Damaskin (Lebed); Archimandrite Varlaam (Ozimok), the abbot of the St. Cyril’s Monastery in Kyiv, Kyiv Eparchy; Archimandrite Vladimir (Gaponiuk), the abbot of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery in Chartoryisk, Volyn Eparchy; the abbot of the Holy Resurrection Uzhgorod Monastery, Archimandrite Mark (Kushtan), Mukachevo Eparchy; the abbot of the St. Nicholas Monastery (the village of Kholmogorivka, Bakhchisarai District), Hieromonk Varnava (Shkurdoda), Crimean Eparchy.

The delegation is accompanied by the deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, and Bishop Mark of Damietta and Kafr El-Sheikh, who represents the Commission of the Coptic Church on Monasteries Affairs.

As reported, a hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church is making a pilgrimage to the shrines of the UOC.

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