On November 30, the day of the Feast of St. Andrew the First-Called, the first Liturgy was held in the Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin in the village of Novyi Pykiv of the Ivanivka community in Khmilnyk district, after the church community joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Archpriest Georgy Donchak, the Dean of the Khmilnyk district, who celebrated the service, addressed the faithful with a sermon: "Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your joint prayer. I congratulate you on your wise decision to join the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. God has blessed you with His mercy to get out of spiritual russian slavery. For the first time in this church, a Divine Liturgy was held in our native Ukrainian language, and for the first time our state, Ukraine, was mentioned, not just some unknown "state." Prayers were offered to the Lord for our soldiers-defenders, for victory and a just peace on our Ukrainian land.
Nelya Susha, one of those who organized the religious community's withdrawal from the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate and transfer to the jurisdiction of the OCU, says that the process was long and quite painful. "I first started talking about the transfer back in 2019, when the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was brought to Ukraine," says Nelia Susha. "I told my priest about it then. He replied that our church is Ukrainian, but we only pray in the Old Slavonic language (something that priests of the Moscow Patriarchate constantly say). But then some parishioners reproached me for making a rebellion in the church. So then this issue quieted down, even, one might say, without starting."
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nelya Susha returned to this issue again. "I asked the priest several times if it was time to break with the Moscow church and start praying in Ukrainian," says Nelya Susha, "because missiles are already flying over our heads. I started working with people, asking them if they would like to have a Ukrainian Church. I saw that people wanted a Ukrainian Church, and this gave me strength. After that, I started collecting signatures."
Thus, step by step, local activists promoted the idea of transferring the community to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The local priest did not support the community's intentions. "And now our dream has come true," says Nelya Susha, not hiding her joy and showing an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations, which states that the religious community of the Protection Church in Pykiv belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Press service of the Diocese of Vinnytsia and Bar of the UOC (OCU)
