Odessa, May 2, 2018
On May 2, 2018, the fourth anniversary of the tragic events in Odessa, His Eminence Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail presided at a memorial service held at the Cathedral of the “Life-Giving Spring” icon of the Mother of God at the Holy Dormition Monastery of Odessa, reports Patriarchia.ru.
Vicars of the Diocese of Odessa, Bishop Arcadius of Ovidiopol; Bishop Diodorus of Yuzhnoe; Bishop Sergius of Bolgrad; Archimandrite Seraphim, Rector of Odessa Theological Seminary; the city and monastery clergy concelebrated with His Eminence.
With the blessing of the ruling hierarch memorial services for the repose of those killed in the 2014 deadly fire of Odessa were celebrated in all churches of the Diocese of Odessa.
The clergy of the Diocese of Odessa also performed litias (short memorial services) on the sites of the mass killings of Odessa residents four years ago.
Early in the morning with the blessing of Metropolitan Agafangel Bishop Diodorus, the Secretary of the Odessa Diocesan Administration Archpriest Evgeny Gutyar, Assistant Dean of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa Archpriest Alexander Malichenko celebrated a memorial service on the site of the killing of the first victims of the 2014 May tragedy at Preobrazhenskaya Street and laid flowers to commemorate these people.
Bishop Diodorus with the clergy also offered up their prayers and laid flowers at Kulikovo Field in Odessa where several dozen people had been killed on May 2, 2014.
The mass killings in 2014 were the result of the Ukrainian nationalist forces’ efforts to silence the pro-Russian representatives of the population, who were not small in number; and because nationalistic elements are backed by the Ukrainian government no punitive measures were taken against them for their lethal violence.
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