UOC hierarch participates in consecration of Supraśl church in Poland

Metropolitan Vladimir (Melnik) at the consecration of a church in Poland. Photo: Prawosławie w obiektywie

On June 27, 2021, on All Saints' Week, the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Vladimir (Melnik) Volodymyr-Volynsky and Kovel, took part in the consecration of the Сhurch of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Supraśl Monastery in Poland, reports the site of the monastery.

The rite of consecration was led by Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland, concelebrated by numerous hierarchs and clergy of the Polish Orthodox Church.

The ceremony was attended by the hierarchs of the Ukrainian and Georgian Churches – Metropolitan Vladimir of Volodymyr-Volynsk and Kovel and Archbishop Melkisedek of Margveti and Ubis.

Before the start of the service, the Primate of the Polish Church, who from the first days of his ministry in the Białystok-Gdansk Diocese drew attention to the need to restore the Annunciation Church, emphasized that this is a historic event that everyone has been looking forward to for a very long time.

The ceremony was attended by numerous pilgrims, as well as representatives of the central and local authorities. After the service, a greeting letter from the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, who noted the importance and symbolism of the event as evidence of the spiritual revival and growth of the Polish Orthodox Church, was read out.

The Annunciation Church of the Supraśl Monastery, founded at the beginning of the 16th century, was blown up by retreating German troops in 1944. After the end of the war, Orthodox monks were expelled from the monastery. The revival of the Supraśl Monastery began during the years of the activity of the Archbishop Sawa of the Białystok-Gdansk Diocese, now the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland. In 1984, it was decided to restore the blown-up Cathedral of the Annunciation, and a year later, on June 4, Archbishop Sawa laid the first stone in its foundation. The reconstruction of the temple was completed only in 2021.

Earlier, the Primate of the Polish Church congratulated His Beatitude Onuphry on the namesake day.

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