Summer Festival of Two Communities Ecumenical Peace Prayer June 24, 2023 St. Andreas Church
Invitation to the Summer Festival and Peace Prayer for Peace in Ukraine.
This prayer will traditionally be offered every year until a complete and just victory is achieved.
Big thanks to the St. Andreas community led by Cord Scholer for participating in this prayer and for the warm welcome of our Ukrainian Orthodox community in Hamburg.
Summer Festival Schedule:
St. Andreas Church, Bogenstraße 30.
3:00 PM: Welcome and devotion (short prayer and joint song) on the church square
Coffee, cake, and ice cream outside
3:20 PM: Ukrainian children’s choir
4:00 PM: St. Andreas children’s choir in front of the church
5:00 PM: Joint prayer for peace in the church (the liturgical choir sings two pieces) followed by dinner on the church square (Ukrainian dishes)
6:00 PM: Ukrainian choir in the church
7:00 PM: Conclusion
Ukrainian Easter in Hamburg 2022
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Mycolai
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Hamburg arose from the desire of people to found a Ukrainian Orthodox Church Parish of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
In 2015 there were ten people who submitted their signatures for the formation of a church congregation (this is documented by a log).
The Holy Patriarch Filaret was asked to bless the founding of a new congregation in Hamburg and to send a clergyman.
In 2016, an emissary from Hamburg went to Kyiv and received the blessing and the necessary document.
For a long time after that, however, a priest was still missing, for the following reasons:
- We were unable to find a place for the services. The doors remained closed to us because the Kyiv Patriarchate was not recognized (we received rejections on our letters).
- There was also no financial help, for example for a priest to earn a living, which would make his work possible.
In November 2017 father Yaroslav Bogodist picked up humanitarian aid from Bremen (Germany) to take it to Kremenchug (Ukraine) for a children's home there.
Through God's work Father Yaroslav met Ukrainians from Hamburg, which revealed the desire to found a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Hamburg.
He also learned about the challenges that awaited him when founding the church community.
After nine months of hard work by the community and the priest, we were able to:
– gather a sufficiently large number of people who expressed a desire to pray together (about 50 parishioners, and the potential is much larger)
– to regain the lost trust among believers who, after the long search for space and priests, had doubted the foundation of the Church
– establish friendly relations with the Ukrainian communities of other cities in Germany, e. g. Hanover, Cologne, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main
– to establish a church choir with regular rehearsals
– to organize and conduct the first three liturgies in the premises of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Hamburg
– Build relationships with other denominations, namely Catholics and Protestants
– to find among the Catholics a congregation that was temporarily willing to make their church available for liturgies
– to post an online sermon every week on the days of the week when there is no liturgy in the church.
This was the true way of believing Christians, united by faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, regular church services are not possible during the pandemic.
