Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, August 20, 2025
On August 19, the feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Transfiguration Skete of Bancheny Monastery in the Diocese of Chernivtsi and Bukovina.
The primate was concelebrated by 19 brother hierarchs, including His Eminence Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech and his vicar, His Grace Bishop Michael of Constantia from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and His Grace Bishop Philaret of Căpriana from the Moldovan Orthodox Church, and a host of local and visiting clergy, reports the Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Met. Gabriel of Lovech and Bp. Michael of Constantia have proven themselves to be true friends of the persecuted UOC, standing against the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s interference in the Ukrainian ecclesiastical world and the state’s campaign to ban the Church. In 2023, Bp. Michael, who is abbot of the Chekotin Monastery of the Archangel Michael, along with the abbots, abbesses, and brotherhoods and sisterhoods of eight other monasteries, published a letter stating that the attacks on the UOC and the Kiev Caves Lavra are attacks on the entire Orthodox Church.
During the Transfiguration service, prayers were offered for peace in the Ukrainian land.
Following the Divine Liturgy, the traditional blessing of the first fruits of the harvest took place.
Met. Onuphry addressed the faithful with a sermon, recalling how the Lord’s Transfiguration occurred on Mt. Tabor and how the Apostles heard the voice of God the Father: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him (Mt. 17:5).
“These words: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him, sound out to us every day,” the Metropolitan emphasized. “The Lord addresses us through the voice of conscience, through the Holy Scriptures, and calls us to be faithful to Christ, in Whom the Heavenly Father is well pleased, Who is pleasing to God, Who is our Savior and Redeemer, and that we should obey Him, because God became incarnate and appeared on earth and gave us sacred laws that lead a man to eternal life and salvation.”
The primate congratulated the abbot of Bancheny Monastery, His Eminence Metropolitan Longin, on his 60th birthday. The hierarch wished him strength of soul and body for continued zealous service. On the occasion of this anniversary, for his merits before the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onuphry awarded Metropolitan Longin the Order of the Primate of the UOC.
Met. Longin was also presented with the Order of St. Gabriel of Chișinău, First Degree, from the primate of the Orthodox Church of Moldova.
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