First UOC church opened in Gorodenka since 90s

On December 19, 2020, the parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the town of Gorodenka, Ivano-Frankivsk region, celebrated the memory of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the first divine service in the new home church. This was reported by the press service of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC.

With the blessing of Archbishop Seraphim of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia, the believers themselves arranged the premises for the temple of the canonical Church. This is the only temple of the UOC in the city since the 1990s – the former Orthodox churches were taken away by supporters of the UOC-KP and the Uniates.

The clergy of Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi-Bukovina dioceses arrived at the first Divine Liturgy in their own church to share the prayerful joy of the rector and the UOC community at the first Divine Liturgy in several decades.

During the service, they offered up a fervent prayer for peace and order in Ukraine; at the end of the liturgy, the rector performed a lity service for all deceased Orthodox Christians.

Those parishioners who had actively worked and helped in the arrangement of the church received church awards.

“The clergy and believers of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese, headed by His Eminence Archbishop Seraphim, sincerely congratulate the rector and parishioners of the Holy Elias Church on the revival of liturgical life in their own church,” the diocesan press service stressed.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that a year after the seizure of two churches of the UOC in Hrynyava, Ivano-Frankivsk region, a new throne was consecrated.