Kiev, November 25, 2014
On November 23, 2014, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) would be 79. Memorial services and commemorative events in Kiev, dedicated to His Beatitude late Metropolitan Vladimir, were timed to coincide with this anniversary, reports Patriarchia.ru.
After the Divine Liturgy at the refectory church of the Kiev Caves Lavra His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All the Ukraine served a litia for the repose of Metropolitan Vladimir with a multitude of hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church concelebrating.
Metropolitan Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevoe performed a service for the repose of Metropolitan Vladimir on his grave, situated in the Lavra’s cemetery, after the Liturgy at the Lavra’s Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.
In the afternoon, at the All Saints’ Church of the Cathedral complex of the Resurrection of Christ, Metropolitan Alexander performed a memorial service (panikhida) for the deceased head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with Bishop Varsonofy of Borodyanka, rector of the cathedral, and the church clergy concelebrating with him. After the service a fund-raising dinner for the needy was arranged by the cathedral’s congregation.
A photo exhibition dedicated to the memory of Metropolitan Vladimir was opened at the “Sobornaya” gallery. Photographs of Metropolitan Vladimir from the personal archive of Metropolitan Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevoe; works by Priest Maxim Brusnika, head of the photo service of primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; works by Igor Grachenko, an Orthodox photographer from Kramatorsk; female artists Margarita Golovakina and Zhanna Rudnitskaya are represented at the exhibition.
In the same evening His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry served a litia for the repose of Metropolitan Vladimir on his grave. Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary (chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church), Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, Metropolitan Paul of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl (Father-Superior of the Kiev Caves Lavra), Metropolitan Platon of Feodosia and Kerch, Metropolitan Augustine of Bila Tserkva and Boguslav; Archbishops Panteleimon of Uman and Zvenihorod, Mitrophanes of Horlivka and Sloviansk; Bishops Hilary of Makariv, Theodosy of Boyarka, Clement of Irpin, Nicholas of Vasilkovka (Vasylkivka); the clergy of Kiev, students of the theological seminaries prayed at the service.
After the litia flowers were laid on the grave of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir.
On the same day a commemoration evening in honor of the deceased head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church took place at the “Sophia of Kiev” national preserve. The organizers of the event were the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and the Metropolitan Vladimir Memorial Fund. A concert-requiem was performed within the framework of the event; volume XI of the collected works by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir as well as the first part of the multivolume work by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonospetras Monastery, the Lives of the Saints Compiled on Holy Mount Athos (the Dukh and Litera Ukrainian publishing house), were represented as well. The guests of the evening took a look around the exhibition of personal things of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Vladimir.
