UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA

CONSISTORY OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

PRESS RELEASE

Archpastoral Palm Sunday Visit to St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, OH

By Julia Hontaruk-Levko – Photos by Seminarian Taras Kaluzhnyy

On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people when out to meet the Lord and welcomed Him with displays of honor and shouts of praise. On this day, the Orthodox Christians receive and worship Christ in this same manner, acknowledging Him as our King and Lord. To celebrate this great feast of the Church year St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, OH was blessed to welcome among their midst their spiritual father and the ruling hierarch of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA – His Grace Bishop Daniel. Very Rev. Fr. John Nakonachny, pastor, and Very Rev. Fr. Michael Hontaruk, assistant pastor, concelebrated along with Bishop Daniel. The choirs sang beautifully under the direction of Markian Komichak.

Palm Sunday brought hundreds of faithful, both young and old, to celebrate this feast together with their bishop. Many received the Holy Mysteries of Confession and Eucharist in preparation for the Feast of Feasts – Pascha – in a week. The bishop, in his sermon, reflected upon the meaning of the biblical Palm Sunday events, stating “that each one of us is called to behold our Lord not simply as the One who came to us once riding on a donkey, but as the One who is always present in His Church, coming ceaselessly to us in power and glory at every Eucharist, in every prayer and sacrament, and in every act of love, kindness and mercy.”

Each parishioner, holding in their hands the palm branches, received a blessing from their bishop with the sprinkling of Holy Water, thus blessing the branches and prayerfully imitating the biblical act of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem.