Metropolitan Victor prays with persecuted UOC parish in Starokostiantyniv

Liturgy in the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Starokostiantyniv. Photo: Khmelnytskyi Eparchy

On January 8, 2026, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos, Metropolitan Victor of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv led the festal Divine Liturgy at the persecuted UOC parish of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Starokostiantyniv. This was reported by the press service of the Khmelnytskyi Eparchy.

Concelebrating with the hierarch were the eparchy secretary, Archpriest Oleksandr Rybchynskyi; the dean of the Starokostiantyniv district, Archpriest Vasyl Droniuk; Archimandrite Feodosiy (Slobodianiuk); and clerics of the eparchy.

During the service, special prayers were offered for peace, for Ukraine’s defending soldiers, and for all those who have suffered from the war.

After the service, the hierarch addressed the faithful with a pastoral word and congratulated them on the feast of the Nativity of Christ. Pupils of the Sunday school presented a Christmas program, after which the metropolitan handed out sweet gifts to the children. The celebration concluded with the communal singing of carols.

As the UOJ previously reported, on April 8, 2023, a crowd of OCU supporters seized from believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in the city of Starokostiantyniv.

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