Kiev, July 26, 2017
Photo: news.church.ua A live broadcast of a moleben on Vladimir Hill in Kiev and the following cross procession will be shown on the station “Inter” on Thursday, beginning at 1:00 PM Kiev time (6:00 AM Eastern), reports the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The moleben and procession can also be viewed on this page:
As previously reported, the moleben before a number of miraculous icons and the 14-foot monument upon a 52-foot pedestal, and the cross procession, in which thousands are expected to participate, will be celebrated by the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, and concelebrated by a host of other hierarchs and clergy.
The large prayer procession from the memorial to the Baptizer of Rus’ the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir will begin at 1:30 PM and move along the streets of the capital to the Holy Dormition Kiev Caves Lavra, where the festal All-Night Vigil will be celebrated for the feast of St. Vladimir on Friday.
This year, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Kharkov Council of Bishops and the Day of the Baptism of Rus’, a number of new and old miraculous icons have been brought to the capital. The ancient icons include the Pochaev (Pochaev Lavra), Svyatogorsk (Svyatogorsk Lavra), Zimnensky (Zimnensky Monastery, Volyn Region), Kasperovskaya (Dormition Cathedral, Odessa), and Akhtirskaya (Holy Protection Church, Okhtyrka, Sumy Region) Mother of God icons. The newer miraculous icons include the Boyani (Boyani Monastery, Chernivtsi Region), Radomyshl (Iveron) (St. Nicholas Church, Radomyshl, Zhytomyr Region), Kiev Brotherhood (Kiev Caves Lavra), Vladimir-Tithes (Tithes Monastery, Kiev), and the Look Upon the Humility (Entrance of the Theotokos Monastery, Kiev) Mother of God icons, as well as the Icon-Not-Made-By-Hands from the Boris and Gleb Monastery, Kharkov Region.
At the May 27-28, 1992 Kharkov Council, the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church displaced then-Metropolitan Philaret (who now heads the schismatic Kiev Patriarchate) as primate, and elected Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), who led the Church for 22 years, under whom the number of monasteries in Ukraine increased from 32 to 228, and the number of theological schools from 4 to 17.
The icons have been taken to various dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be present at Divine Liturgies, akathists, and molebens to the Mother of God throughout the month of July, before arriving in Kiev tomorrow.
Upon completion of the procession, the holy icons will be available for veneration in the refectory church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius in the Kiev Caves Lavra. On July 28, the day of St. Vladimir and the Baptism of Rus’, the Divine Liturgy from the lavra will also be live broadcast on “Inter,” beginning at 9:00 AM (2:00 AM Eastern).
