The Head of the UGCC consecrated a monastic house for the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in Odesa

 At the beginning of the ceremony, the Decree about the establishment of a monastic house and a chapel in honor of the Lord's Stritennia was read.  Then His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC, consecrated the altar, the chapel and the entire monastic building.

 Later, Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, Exarch of Odesa and chairman of the Patriarchal Commission for Monastic Affairs, explained that the idea of ​​founding this monastery arose in the context of the reorganization of the monastic ministry in the UGCC: “Where the ministry of a certain consecrated community had already fulfilled its historical mission and where there are no vocations for a long time, we decided to sell the property and invest the money in the place where our Church is developing and where there is a need in consecrated communities,” said the bishop.

According to the bishop, the provinces of different countries were encouraged to cooperate, and it was the Sisters Servants who were the first to respond to this idea.  "The Sisters Servants of the Province of Christ the King decided to sell their house in Canada and buy a house for a monastery here in Odesa, in the southern part of Ukraine, where our Church is actively developing today," said Bishop Mykhailo.

 His Beatitude Sviatoslav in his speech after the consecration of the monastery stated that the significance of this event will become clear only with time, "from the distance of history." “If an eparchy or exarchate does not have monasteries, it has no roots.  The foundation of a new monastery is the moment when this young structure of our Church becomes deeply rooted in the land where the Lord God wants to build, restore, and order His holy church.

Addressing the sisters on the occasion of the consecration of the monastery, the Primate said that he sincerely congratulates them "on such a wise decision. "Today, more than ever, here, in these lands that have seen and experienced different pages of history, your presence is so needed; it is so necessary for someone to teach a modern man in Odesa to believe in God, to rediscover Him, present and alive,  among us," said the Head and Father of the UGCC.

 At the end of the festivities, Sister Myroslava Yakhymets, Provincial Abbess of the Sisters Servants in Ukraine, thanked His Beatitude Sviatoslav for the blessing of the house. "If it were not for the Lord, this would not have happened, and I believe that this is His plan…” she added.

In a special way, Sister Myroslava also thanked the Sisters of the Province of Christ the King: "Such a gesture testifies to the deep unity of our congregation, and my heart rejoices over this. Dear sisters! This monastery is under the protection of the Lord's Stritennia (Presentation of Jesus at the Temple - ed.) and may everyone who enters this house meet with God.”

The UGCC Department for Information