On 7 September 2022, on invitation of Metropolitan Nektarios of China, Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnytsia and Bar, visited an evening worship service at the Church of Saint John the Baptist near the Dromolaxia, Larnaca. The worship, which took place on the eve of the great feast of the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos, according to the new Julian calendar, was led by Metropolitan Nektarios.
Before the beginning of the service, the hierarchs of Cyprus and the Ukrainian Church exchanged greetings and after a short meeting, they went to the temple at once, the OCU press service reports.
That evening at the temple, there were a lot of honorable guests, who arrived at the holy service. Among them, there were the secretary of the Cypriot government, a few members of the Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus, important officers, and mayors of neighboring towns. There were also numerous representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora at the service, who arrived to Dromolaxia to pray together with the Ukrainian bishops.
At the same time, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Cyprus, Ruslan Nimchynskyi and public figure and philanthropist Christodoulos Ellinas were prayed together with Metropolitan Simeon.
In a sermon by Metropolitan Nectarios, he told the audience about the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and introduced Metropolitan Simeon, who is the first hierarch of this Church to visit the Church on an official visit, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Metropolitan Nektarios also spoke about current events in Ukraine.
The Cypriot bishop, in particular, spoke about the absurdity and inadmissibility from a Christian point of view of the situation when Orthodox Russians unleashed and are waging an unjustified aggressive war against fellow Orthodox Ukrainians.
At the end of the service, Metropolitan Simeon, together with Metropolitan Nektarios, took part in a cross procession around the church with the local miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Lysia”.
After the end of the service, fraternal communion took place between the Ukrainian and Cypriot hierarchs. Metropolitan Simeon conveyed his congratulations to Metropolitan Epiphany, and Metropolitan Nektarios, in turn, assured of support and prayer for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Church.
Let us recall that earlier Metropolitan Simeon has met with the Ukrainian diaspora in Larnaca, Cyprus.