UOC hierarch celebrates Divine Liturgy at OCA parish

On Sunday, October 27, at the church of Our Lady, “Seeker of the Perished”, in Los Angeles, Metropolitan Victor of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv celebrated the Divine Liturgy. According to the press service of the Khmelnytskyi Eparchy, the hierarch of the UOC conducted the service at an OCA parish with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine and Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West.

Metropolitan Victor was joined by the parish rector, Archpriest Nazariy Polatayko, the parish cleric, Father Volodymyr Telizhenko, as well as clergy from the Orthodox Church in America and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The service was held in two languages: Church Slavonic and English.

“With the blessing of the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada, as a sign of fraternal support and prayer, the name of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is lifted up at each OCA service (during litanies and the Great Entrance),” the statement read.

During the service, a prayer for peace in Ukraine, which is also regularly offered in OCA churches during every service, was read. Metropolitan Victor also offered special prayers for the Ukrainian soldiers and all the people of Ukraine.

At the end of the Liturgy, Metropolitan Victor addressed the faithful present in the church with a homily in both Ukrainian and English. He also conveyed warm congratulations to the rector, on the occasion of his name day, on behalf of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

Archpriest Nazariy, originally from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, has served as rector of the OCA parish in Los Angeles for nearly 10 years. His ordination as a presbyter was performed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in 2014 on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

After the service, Metropolitan Victor met with Ukrainian Orthodox faithful who had been compelled to leave Ukraine as a result of the Russian military invasion.

As previously reported by UOJ, the Primate of the OCA wished the UOC Primate that "the Lord would reward your trust and faithfulness always strengthen you in your difficult calling as the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church during this troubled time."