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Вічная Пам’ять – Memory Eternal: VERY REV. FR. +IHOR OKHRIMTCHOUK 1970-2021

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Від: Канцелярії Консисторії УПЦвКанаді
From the Office of the Consistory of the UOCC

Оцим ділимося сумною вісткою що упокоївся раптово довго-літний парох Оттавської громади о. +Ігор Охримчук.

The UOCC is saddened to announce the sudden repose of Fr. +Ihor Okhrimtchouk, long-time pastor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Ottawa, on Wednesday June 23, 2021 at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, at the age of 51.

(Continuing from the announcement on the Cathedral’s Facebook page:)

Fr. +Ihor was the beloved husband of Jennifer, and the devoted and loving father of Taras and MaryAna. Dear son of the late Yaroslav and Larysa. Cherished son in law of Tom and Lillian Yakielashek and brother in law of Gordon (Kathryn) Atamanchuk. Uncle of Jane, William and Greta.

Friends may pay respects at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, 1000 Byron Avenue, Ottawa, ON K2A 0J3 on Monday, June 28, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Pursuant to maximum attendance regulations, please call Kelly Funeral Home – Carling Chapel (613-828-2313) to pre-register your visit. Entry for visitation will be strictly limited to registered guests. Guests are required to wear face masks and are asked to respect and practice social distancing.

A very limited (in person) Divine Liturgy and Funeral Rite for a priest will be served on Tues June 29th, beginning at 10:00 a.m. A livestream of this service will be available at http://www.livememorialservices.com/Home/ServiceDetail/14486

Please see the attached biography (in two formats, as re-formatted from the Cathedral’s web-site) of our departed brother in Christ, Fr. +Ihor.

Висловлюємо щире співчуття Добр. Дженифир (Jennifer,) та синові Тарасові, і дочці Маріянні. Та почерзі, дальші родині та ширші громаді в Оттаві та й дальше поза Оттавою.

We express our sincere sympathies to Dobr. Jennifer, to son Taras, and to daughter MaryAna. As well, to Fr. Ihor’s extended family and to the parish and wider communities in Ottawa and well beyond.

May our sobrat (clergy-brother) in Christ be numbered among the saints and may his Memory be Eternal! Вічная Пам’ять!

Прот. Тарас Удод, Голова Президії Консисторії, УПЦвКанаді
(Fr.) Taras Udod, Chancellor, UOCC

PASCHA! A Message from the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Beyond the Borders of Ukraine to the Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of Ukraine and the Diaspora

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“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.” (Conclusion of the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, read during Paschal Matins at the FEAST OF FEASTS – the RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST)

Dearly beloved Sisters and Brothers in our Lord,

CHRIST IS RISEN! ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕС!

Our Lord and Savior has offered Himself up on the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, suffered under the torture of human hands, was buried and on this third day, He has “risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs bestowing life!”  How do we express our love and gratitude to the One Who opened the gates of Heaven to us all – both the living and the dead? First and most important, we do not express that love and gratitude only during the celebration of the Resurrection FEAST.  We offer them every day in prayer. We offer them in the ways we relate to one another.  We offer that love and gratitude through every single, miniscule decision or choice that we make through the course of a day.  We offer them through the mercy, comfort and compassion with which we embrace those who are different from us in any way.

We no longer fear death, says St. John, because our Savior has annihilated death!  Ours is to take up the life that He has given us, victorious over demons and rejoicing with the angels, knowing that none of us is left behind.  Basking in the Resurrection LIGHT that shines forth from the empty tomb and filled with the Grace inspired into us through all the Sacraments, we can work miracles in a world that all too often seems dark and still consumed with death.  We are victorious in Christ.  We CAN be the LIGHT that transforms the whole world and to all who choose that darkness.

Oh, what opportunity we have in our world’s present circumstances!  We are confronted with a pandemic and the isolation associated with it, with racial strife and its horrific manifestations and with crippling and destructive political division. In all this we have opportunity to witness to the world as did the new Christians who conquered a much darker world in the first centuries after our Lord’s Ascension to Heaven. When they came together in worship, many times in caves, the space literally throbbed with anticipation in the contemplation of the Resurrection Power that was theirs.  They could barely hold themselves back until the conclusion of the worship service so that they could go back out into the world to bear witness to a God Who loved them perhaps more than they loved themselves.  They had a mission and a ministry of serving others – being Christ to them – in that love – the same mission to which we are called today.

Our prayer as we celebrate the FEAST OF FEASTS, dearly beloved, is that today your hearts are throbbing because of the Resurrection Power that is also yours. Not all are called to preach to the world, but we all are inspired with the Grace that can and will enable us to utilize that Power.  We all can reach into the lives of those whose lives intersect with ours.  We can be peacemakers when we witness hatred in speech or in deed.  We can speak the positive, perhaps changing the perspective through which the individuals involved view a situation or a heated argument.  This Power given to us also enables us to be merciful, pure in heart, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, meek and unselfish.

The pathway to salvation has been provided by our Risen Lord, throughout His public ministry and especially through the days of Holy Week.  Let us now follow that pathway anew as we enter into Bright Week.  The world needs us!  Nothing is more certain in life than the promise of salvation for those of who live in sincere faith and trust in our Risen Lord.  May the Grace of our Risen Lord, the Love of God the Father and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all as you follow the “narrow path” that leads to salvation.

INDEED HE IS RISEN! ВОІСТИНУ ВОСКРЕС!

With Archpastoral blessings,

+ YURIJ – Metropolitan

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

+ ANTONY – Metropolitan

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, South America and Diaspora

+ JEREMIAH – Archbishop

Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchy of South America

+ DANIEL – Archbishop

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and Diaspora

+ ILARION – Bishop

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

+ ANDRIY – Bishop

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Nativity Epistle of the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Beyond the Borders of Ukraine

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To the God-beloved Pastors, Venerable Monastics,

and all Faithful Children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Diaspora and in Ukraine

 

“Today Christ is born from a Virgin in Bethlehem, today the Eternal One is born and the Word is incarnated: the powers of heaven rejoice, the earth and all mankind rejoice” (Festal Stykhyra)

Christ is Born!

Today the Orthodox Church again celebrates the Nativity of Christ, commemorating the advent into the world of the Son of God.  The entire Christian world glorifies and magnifies the New-born God-child, Christ the Lord.

St. Paul calls the Nativity of Christ “A mystery of great piety: God appeared in the flesh. (I Tim. 3:16).  The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God is the greatest and deepest mystery of the Christian faith.  The Pre-eternal God becomes man without ceasing to be God.  The Holy Evangelist John the Theologian says “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14).  

In our contemporary anxious and confused world, where terror and uncertainty reign, the quiet and joyful angelic hymn rings out: “Glory to God in the highest, His peace is on earth, and His good-will among men” (Lk. 2:14).

Today the entire world is anxious, just as the residents of Jerusalem were aforetime (Mt. 2:3), and so the angelic song about peace on earth and good-will among men fills every Christian soul with peace and hope for a better future.  For today the Saviour of the world lies in a manger, He who “does not break the bent reed and does not snuff out the smoldering flax” (Is. 42:3).  “He is our peace, Who tore down the dividing wall” (Eph. 2:14) between heaven and earth, which had been erected by human unrighteousness.

Mankind has contemplated this Divine Infant for over two thousand years, and from Him many derive life-giving strength which transforms their life for the better.  The Holy Fathers say that Christ came to the earth in order to raise us up to heaven, that he became man, that we might become sons of God, that He became poor that we might be rich, and humble so that we might be glorified.  

It is a great sorrow to us all, that this year during the celebration of the Nativity holidays we experience a great trial as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.  Today our temples are affected by particular restrictions which prevent our faithful from receiving necessary pastoral care.  But the great feast which we celebrate, the Nativity of Christ, reminds us of God’s immeasurable love for the human person.  “God so loved the World, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

Out of His great love for His creation, He made this world beautiful.  But people often break their unity with God through their sinful life and bring misfortune, sickness, and evil into the world.  This pandemic, which has shaken the entire world, calls us as Christians to meditate upon our own personal lives.  God would not have permitted this pandemic to attain such world-wide development if it were not a reminder to all the people of the earth.

It is precisely the feast of the Nativity of Christ which witnesses to the fact that God does not leave us without His care.  God not only looks after the world as a whole, but after each person individually.

And so may the One born in Bethlehem, the Lord resting in the manger, spur each of us on to consider why we live and what path we are following – the straight path of God, or the crooked path of sin.  Faith in God calls all of us to battle with all manner of evil and before anything else with our own personal sin.  

During these holy days of the Nativity season let us prayerfully call upon the God-child Christ – our Saviour – so that He might protect all of us from this terrible sickness.  

We greet all of you with a sincere heart, dear brothers and sisters, with the great and salvific feasts of the Nativity of Christ, the New Year, and the Holy Theophany.  We especially greet our youth and children, and all of you God-beloved Christians in the diaspora and in Ukaine.

May the coming new year be for all of us a year of spiritual growth, peace, good health, familial good fortune, and a God-blessed year of good fortune for all people throughout the world.  

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

With Archpastoral Blessings,

+YURIJ, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

+ANTONY, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and in the Diaspora

+JEREMIAH, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchy of Brazil and South America

+DANIEL, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA and Western Europe

+ILARION, Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

+ANDRIY, Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada