Several hundred people in Kyiv prayed that there were no more orphans
On Sunday, November 9, at St. Michael’s Square in Kyiva prayer service for orphans was conducted with the participation of all Christian denominations. As RISU previously reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko joined the action together with his wife Maryna, who released a white dove into the sky as a sign of peace and harmony.
The event was organized by ‘Ukraine without orphans’Alliancesupported by the President of Ukraine, International Charity Foundation of the UGCC Caritas Ukraine together with the Department of Social Service of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate and other organizations.
“Generally, we do not only pray, we work, too. This is primarily a charitable activity - there are 24 family type homes for children and we are working to their number increased. We also take care ofkindergartens, work with state boarding schools ranging from Chernihiv to Uzhgorod. Such actions as we had todayare to urge to the daily prayers for orphans. It would be very sad if those prayers were heard only once a year,” said Fr. Victor Simon, a representative of the Roman Catholic Church.
He said that in Austria there aresome 4-5 thousand families without children. While every year 100-200 orphans appear, so the chance to get a child pretty small. In Ukraine there are about 100,000 orphans per 5000 families who would be willing to take them. Therefore, the figuresmake the situation clear enough.
In addition, Patriarch Filaret, Primate of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), Bishop and Vicar of the Diocese of Kyiv Hilarion (UOC-MP), representatives of the Armenian Church, the Protestant movement, the Roman Catholic Church and others took part in the prayer.
They saidtogether the prayers and said the words of admonition on the problem of child abandonment in Ukraine. The greatest wish of every priest is that the orphans in Ukraine disappeared as a phenomenon, that everyone had shelter and relatives.
“The orphans are is not only those who have been left without parents or relatives. They are the ones who do not feel the love,who remainall by themselves. It is important that everyone remember these people and pray for them to God. Then together we can overcome this problem,” said His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar).
Patriarch Filaret also noted on the need of care of orphans andopened the common prayer: “We have to take care of orphans, instill good in their souls. In order to instill good, we should do everything exclusively with love. Therefore, let’s do good to children, especially orphans.”
The prayer ended with a joint prayer of several hundred guests at St. Michael’s Square. All those attending read the words of prayer with President Poroshenko’s wife Maryna, who also released a white dove into the sky as a sign of peace and unity. Then the kids released into the sky yellow and blue balloons and enjoyed the singing of the children's choir.
Pictures from the President of Ukraine’s website
