His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy yesterday on the feast of the holy hierarch St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia in the St. Nicholas house church in the residence of the primate of the UOC at the Kiev Caves Lavra.
During the service, the consecration of Archimandrite Dionysiy (Pilipchuk) as the Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, a vicariate of the Kiev Metropolitanate, was celebrated, reports the site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
At its session on Monday, December 17, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Church had designated Archimandrite Dionysiy as its replacement for Alexander Drabinko, the former Metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, who had renounced the Church of Christ and joined the nationalist church created by Constantinople in Kiev on Saturday, December 15.
The other defector, Simeon Shostasky, the former Metropolitan of Vinnitsa and Bar, was replaced by His Eminence Archbishop Barsanuphius (Stolyar) of Borodianka, who was lovingly greeted by his new flock for the first time on Tuesday.
Met. Onuphry was concelebrated by 10 other hierarchs of the Ukrainian Church and clergy from the Kiev Diocese.
During the Small Entrance, he also awarded two monks of the Kiev Caves Lavra, Hieromonk Laurus (Berezovsky) and Mark (Andryuk) with the liturgical awards of the right to wear a jeweled cross. A special prayer for peace in Ukraine was read during the Liturgy, as always.
At the end of the service, the primate of the UOC addressed the newly-consecrated Bishop Dionysiy with words of encouragement and handed him his episcopal staff. According to tradition, the new hierarch gave the faithful his blessing for the first time as a bishop.
Source: orthochristian.com
Photo credits: news.church.ua
