Ukrainian believers process on feast of Protection despite ban from authorities

Thousands of Orthodox faithful in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukraine held a procession on the feast of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, despite that the executive committee of the city council had formally banned the procession, and the holding of the Divine Liturgy on the place of the destroyed Church of the Holy Protection, reports the Education-Information Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

As in previous years, thousands of Sumy residents and pilgrims from other cities, together with local clergy, held a cross procession on Friday from the city’s Transfiguration Cathedral to the site of the Holy Protection Church, which was destroyed by Soviet authorities in the 1930s, led by Archbishop Evlogy of Sumy and Okhtyrka.

The city council announced a ban on the procession and Liturgy in late September, in response to which Abp. Evlogy noted that it is not within the competency of the committee to allow or ban acts of prayer: “The executive committee has no right to forbid us from holding the procession, all the moreso because we did not ask its permission. In accordance with the law, we informed the mayor of the city that there will be services on October 14.”

The Divine Liturgy on Pokrov Square, where the ruined Church of the Holy Protection once stood, was celebrated by Abp. Evlogy with the clergy of the Transfiguration Cathedral. Several thousands attended the Divine services and joined in the common prayer for peace in Ukraine.

The clergy and faithful did receive threats from radicals, and a small group still tried to prevent the believers from praying by playing music through loudspeakers. Abp. Evlogy called for increased prayer for those who tried to prevent the procession and Divine Liturgy from taking place.

Source: Orthodox Christianity