UOC church built to replace seized church consecrated in Rakiv Lis
The UOC community in the Volyn village of Rakiv Lis, which suffered from a church seizure, built its new church in just seven months.
On September 14, 2021, the day of the Church New Year, Archbishop Nathanael of Volyn and Lutsk performed the rite of consecration of the Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and Their Mother Sophia in the village of Rakiv Lis, Volyn region. The church was built to replace the one that had been seized, the Volyn Eparchy press service reported.
Following the consecration, the hierarch celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in the new church.
Concelebrating with the archbishop were Bishop Athanasius of Kamin-Kashyrskyi; Archimandrite Nektarios (Bakopoulos), a cleric of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus; Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, deputy head of the UOC Department for External Church Relations; district dean Archpriest Bohdan Andreichuk; Archimandrite Paisius (Khomych), head of the eparchial chancellery; church rector Archpriest Rostyslav Sizhuk; clergy of the eparchy; and visiting clergy.
At the Little Entrance, the ruling hierarch of the Volyn Eparchy honored the rector with a high church award – the right to wear the mitre.
Prayers were offered during the service for peace in Ukraine and the unity of world Orthodoxy. Prayers were also offered for deliverance from the coronavirus infection and for the health of medical workers.
As a reminder, the UOC community in the village of Rakiv Lis was among the first in the region to be illegally re-registered into the OCU. After the former rector of the Annunciation Church, Archpriest Mykola Smoliarchuk, together with part of the religious community, transferred to the OCU, Bishop Nathanael suspended him from ministry by decree on February 22, 2019. The UOC community, led by its new rector, Archpriest Rostyslav Sizhuk, was denied access to the church and held services in a temporary chapel.
The UOC faithful of Rakiv Lis built their new church in seven months.
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