THE ICON OF THE DORMITION OF THEOTOKOS IN GETHSEMANE TRANSFERRED TO UKRAINE

On Friday, the 26^th of September/10^th of October 2015, the reverend Bishop Aleksandr of Pereyaslav Khmelnitsky and Vishnevsky, aide to the Most Reverend Onuphrius, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, arrived in Jerusalem. During a night liturgy on the aforementioned day, Bishop Aleksandr co-officiated at the Holy Sepulcher with His Eminence Joachim, Archbishop of former Zambia.

On the morning of Saturday, the 27^th of September/10^th of October 2015, the reverend Bishop Aleksandr and his retinue, accompanied by members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem (Missia), visited the Patriarchate. There, he received by the hands of His Beatitude Theophilos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, the icon of the Dormition of Theotokos, kept at the Dependency of Gethsemane, opposite the Church of the Resurrection. The icon will be used for a wake at the Missia, then transferred to Ukraine, to be venerated by millions of Orthodox faithful and contribute to the strengthening of their spiritual life during this trouble period for the country.

Patriarch Theophilos expressed the wish that Metropolitan Onuphrius and Bishop Aleksandr, as well as the distressed Ukrainian people, be helped and protected upon the mediation of the Most Holy Theotokos by means of its icon, a sacred relic of the Church of Jerusalem.

From the Secretariat-General