In the context of the pastoral interest of the Metropolis of Sweden and All Scandinavia and personally, of the Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden for the Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who are being tested because of the war in their country, the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation in Oslo, in cooperation with the Association of Ukrainians in Norway, will hold a two-day prayer and solidarity event for the Ukrainian people who are being tested, on the weekend of May 7 & 8, 2022.
Specifically, on Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 7:00 pm, a solidarity concert will be held at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Oslo, at Thor Olsens gate 9, 0177 Oslo.
On the following day, Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, 8 May 2022, at 10:00 a.m., Metropolitan Cleopas will preside at the Archpriest’s Divine Liturgy in the aforementioned church, where at the end of the Divine Liturgy he will offer a prayer for the peace of the universal world and an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. The Divine Liturgy will be attended by the parish priests of the church, Archimandrite Mr. Alexandros Loukatos, Superior, and the Vicar Mr. Maxime Lesage, Assistant.
Metropolitan Cleopas said the following in his Easter Message:
“The war in Ukraine is undoubtedly a source of suffering and sorrow, an encounter with death! Casualties, orphans, victims of racial hatred, poverty, physical and mental suffering, of inhumanity and absurdity, of toxicity and perverse behaviour, situations to which man is driven who abhors God and deifies himself. In sympathy with our fellow refugees, let us renew in ourselves the hope from the experience that the Risen Lord is the healer of all these tragic situations, that he gives the overcoming of afflictions and the irrefutable promise of eternal life. We are called to share with the suffering their pain, with the mourners their mourning, with the refugees our common spiritual dwelling place, the Church, without prejudice, since the other is in fact the ‘other me’.”
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Archpriest’s Vespers presided over by Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden at 5:00 p.m.
Solidarity Concert with Ukrainian songs by FolkeMelodi (Ukrainian choir in Oslo) and Easter hymns by the Byzantine Choir of the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Oslo at 7:00 p.m.
Entrance 200 kr, VIPPS: 718915
Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, 8 May 2022
Orthros at 9:00 a.m.
Archpriest’s Divine Liturgy and prayer for the ceasefire in Ukraine presided by Bishop Cleopas of Sweden at 10:00 a.m.
All the proceeds from Saturday’s concert and Sunday’s offertory will be donated to the Association of Ukrainians in Norway for the purchase of medicines.
