Bancheny, Ukraine, April 16, 2018
Photo: news.church.ua Following the Sunday Divine Liturgy at the Holy Ascension Banchensky Monastery yesterday, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine visited the children’s treatment-rehabilitation center “Faith, Hope, and Love,” to greet the orphans cared for by the monastery with the Paschal joy of the Risen Lord, reports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The children’s center operates on the territory of the monastery itself and at a boarding school in the nearby village of Molnitsa which is operated by the monastery.
His Beatitude was accompanied by the abbot of the monastery His Eminence Archbishop Longin of Bancheny, His Grace Bishop Eusebius of Shepetivka, and His Grace Bishop Benjamin of Khotyn, who had concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with him in the monastery.
There are about 200 children being taken care of at the monastery’s center. Bp. Longin (Zhar) began adopting children in the early 1990s, and in 2008 was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine for his outstanding care for orphans.
The children of the orphanage greeted their beloved guest with Paschal hymns.
Met. Onuphry greeted and congratulated all the children and their caregivers with the bright Resurrection of Christ, and presented each with a Paschal gift.
The Ukrainian primate’s visits to children’s homes have become traditional for him, as he visits children who require special attention several times a year. His Beatitude visited the same children’s home in January for the Feast of the Nativity.
