Message to Ecumenical Gathering on Peace in Ukraine

Saint Nicholas Cathedral
Washington, DC

Assembled delegates,

I greet you with joy as many of our churches continue to celebrate the bright and life-giving Resurrection of Christ.
But this joy is mingled with weary sadness as the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags toward a fourth month of fighting.

As primate of the Orthodox Church in America, I wish to state first of all that the Orthodox Church in America reiterates its unconditional condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Unjustified aggressive war is always a sin, but it is particularly scandalous when the conflict involves two nations that are, historically, bulwarks of Orthodox Christianity.

When a war involves not merely sister-peoples, but brethren in Christ, this should serve as a clarion-call to all Christians to reassess and reorder our priorities. We cannot put the world and the things of this world first; we must always begin with Jesus Christ.

At the same time, I would like to reaffirm the support of the Orthodox Church in America for His Beatitude, Onufriy, and canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. While we pray for all our Christian brethren in Ukraine, and especially for all Orthodox Christians, we know that Metropolitan Onufriy bears an especially difficult burden at this time. 

It is our hope, for the sake of all Christians in Ukraine and Russia and all the people of both countries, that this war will come to a swift end, and that peace, justice, reconciliation, and religious freedom for people of all confessions will follow.

The stance of the Orthodox Church in America and its primate has been consistent: we have issued repeated calls for an end to the war, including appeals to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to do everything within his power to bring the conflict to an immediate conclusion.

But the Orthodox Church in America has also been active in providing humanitarian aid to the millions displaced by the Russian invasion. In collaboration with Eleos, the charitable organization of the Polish Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America raised and distributed over $700,000 in relief for Ukrainian refugees in a campaign that lasted until April 8th, 2022. 

The Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, recently traveled to Poland to witness firsthand the impact of the generosity of our faithful. At that time, he also made a fraternal visit to the Romanian Orthodox Church, offering them a gift of $10,000 from our church for the cause of supporting Ukrainian refugees in Romania.

Since the end of our Ukrainian refugee appeal in coordination with Eleos, we have actively encouraged our faithful to continue to contribute to Ukrainian refugee relief through organizations like International Orthodox Christian Charities.

I have personally issued special petitions, to be said by the clergy of our Church at all divine services, praying for peace, repose for the departed, succor for the living, and healing for all. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America has urged all of our faithful to pray with fasting for an end to the hostilities.

In short, the Orthodox Church in America has used and continues to use all means at our disposal—prayer and fasting, almsgiving, and relationships with our sister Churches—to support the victims of this war and seek an end to the conflict.

May God Almighty continue to uphold His Beatitude Onufriy, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, all Christians and all the people of Ukraine during this trial. May he strengthen all Russians of goodwill who oppose this war, actively or in spirit. May he bring healing to the hurting and inspire repentance in the guilty. May mercy and truth meet together; may righteousness and peace kiss each other. May the destruction, terror, strife, and sins of this war come to end, and may all peoples, reconciled with each other and with the God who judges the earth, send up glory to him, unto ages of ages. Amen.

May the same Lord support the work of this ecumenical gathering today, so that we may all do our part in ending this war and supporting its victims.

Yours in the Risen Lord,
+Tikhon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

From the desk of Fr.Nazari

Christ is Risen!

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
by God’s mercy we successfully ended our lenten journey and entered into the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First of all I would like to thank everyone for your prayers and for your participation in the lenten and paschal services, and for your spiritual and material support of our parish. I want to thank the choir for preparing a beautiful repertoire for all the services, making them truly joyous and bringing heaven closer to us while bringing us closer to heaven.

I thank the flower ladies for decorating the temple and once again making our Church “Bearing life and more fruitful than Paradise, brighter than any royal chamber”. I want to thank the sisterhood for organizing the church cleaning, and all the clergy and the altar servers who came to pray with us during Great Lent, the sacrament of Holy Unction, Palm Sunday, and the Paschal services.

Now as we are entering into the summer season and our liturgical calendar will be somewhat lighter, I plan to dedicate a lot of my attention to our Centennial Project, the continuation of the iconographic decoration of our main temple, and St. Herman’s Chapel under the belltower. On

May 24th the Los Angeles City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing regarding the expansion of our church building. I specifically ask all of you to pray for the success of this hearing, so we can continue with our Centennial Project. This is a very important step which will allow us to move forward.

As for the iconographic development, just in time for the Archbishop’s visit on Palm Sunday, our beloved iconographer Marina Smetanina finished her work in the sanctuary. Everyone who was able to see these new additions (including His Eminence) was amazed by the beauty of our current altar, making it into a real Heaven on Earth. In the last issue of the Bulletin we included the schematics of future murals that we would like to put on the eastern wall over the iconostasis with the Holy Trinity in the middle, surrounded by clouds of the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament. This composition will serve as a visual extension of the iconostasis, completing the Theological revelation of the creation and salvation of humankind at the pre-eternal council of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit through Holy Patriarchs, prophets and all the way to the present when the Body and Blood of our Savor Jesus Christ is presented to us through the Heavenly Gates at every Divine Liturgy. The iconography of the temple is not only important from an esthetical point of view, but more importantly for our mystical experience of the sacramental life of the Holy Church through removal by icons and iconographic compositions, of the physical barriers of time and space, and introduction of us faithful to the mystical reality of the age to come. Please consider supporting us in this endeavor.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, again I want to draw your attention to the increasing number of new people in our Parish. Not all of them are familiar of our customs and ways, therefore once again I ask you to be patient and hospitable, making people welcome, assisting them if they don’t know how we are accustomed to doing things in our parish.

As I have said many times, strive to see the image of our Lord in every human being. Please lend your attention to the attached documents: one is about our code of conduct, and another is about church etiquette. Please listen to my announcements at the end of every Divine Liturgy for upcoming services. Check our bulletin boards for schedules and projects.

Last but not least, I want to thank Julia Hanzii and our Parochial School teachers and parents for their assistance for the Paschal celebration. I also want to thank Ekaterina Solovskaya and the Cathedral Children’s Choir for their additional beautification of our services, and the Little Sisterhood for their assistance with Church decoration and collections. I hope all of our parishioners – in fact I encourage you to do so – will also offer their thanks to our kids for their active participation in the spiritual life of our community. May God bless all of us!

Archpriest Nazari Polataiko