UOC book fair "Read and Create" raises UAH 42,400 for affected communities

A charity book fair at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: CF "Favor"

For two days of work of the charitable book fair "Read and Create", which took place on the territory of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on September 25–26, 2021, UAH 42,400 was raised for the needs of the affected communities of the UOC, reports the Charity Foundation "Favor".

The event, organized by the “Favor” Charitable Foundation and the “Our Mite” project, was held in support of the communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that lost their churches as a result of the seizures.

The work of the fair began with a prayer service at a hundred icons of the Mother of God, presented at the exhibition "Ukraine – the home of the Most Holy Theotokos". The prayer singing was performed by the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis, Archbishop Nicholai of Vasylkiv, concelebrated by Archpriest Vladimir Kostochka, head of the “Our Mite” project, Archpriest Alexander Sorokin, head of the “Favor” Foundation, as well as the clergy of the city of Kyiv.

The children's church choir "Rejoice" led by Natalia Meleshkina performed before the audience, and, as the Foundation noted, the children's voices sounded especially heartfelt: "Faith is eternal, faith is glorious! Our faith is Orthodox."

During the work of the book fair, it was possible to raise more than UAH 42 thousand.

“The organizers express special gratitude to Bishop Sylvester of Bilogorodka, rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, for his help and assistance in organizing the event. A million of bows to all who supported the initiative of the organizers and took part in the fair. Thanks to joint efforts, UAH 42,400 was collected in two days. The funds raised during the charity event will be used to build new temples! We hope that with God's help the “Read and Create” charity book fair will become a good tradition!" emphasizes the CF "Favor".

How the “Read and Create” book fair was held and the stories of the participants of this charitable action were told in the story of the “1Kozak” channel.

“It was gratifying to see people – very young and gray-haired, women with children and businesslike men, laypeople and priests – who were keenly interested in bookshelves, searched for publications they liked, found necessary and interesting books and gladly donated. Volunteers said that one family took away books worth 2,500 hryvnias. But not specific amounts are important, but the fact that at such moments we, faithful to the UOC, feel like one family and share something important,” the authors of the story emphasized.

The UOJ wrote that the “Read and Create” book fair was held in support of the program “40 Temples” by the Charitable Foundation “Favor”, within the framework of which the fund had already provided aid to 39 UOC communities affected by church raids.

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