In an atmosphere of recollection and in the presence of many believers, all the holy services of the Great Week took place according to the typikon of the Church in the holy churches of Antalya, Side and Alanya.
His Eminence Metropolitan Job of Pisidia presided at the holy church of Saint Alypios in Antalya, while His Excellency Bishop Ambrosios of Eudokiada presided over at the holy church of the Mother of God of Pisidia in Alanya.
A large number of Orthodox faithful from different countries, among them the Consul of Ukraine in Antalya, Mr. Oleksandr Voronin and his family, participated in the Divine Liturgy of Paschal Night in the church of Saint Alypios.
During the Agape vespers, celebrated by the local metropolitan Job surrounded by Bishop Ambrosios of Eudokiada and the clergy of the church, the hundred of faithful present heard the reading of the Gospel in their native language: Greek, Russian, English, Finnish, Belarusian, Farsi, Turkish and Ukrainian, read by the Consul of Ukraine.
After Vespers, His Eminence Job accompanied the Consul of Ukraine to Beldibi in the region of Antalya, in order to bless the Paschal meal of 700 orphaned children who lost their parents due to the war in Ukraine and have since been housed over one year by the Ruslan Shostak Foundation and its charity program “Childhood without war”.
The young children listened with interest to the meaning of the feast explained to them in an understandable way by Metropolitan Job and, together with the staff of the Foundation, received from him the promise of a more systematic pastoral presence of the Church at the foundation.
