Intercession of the Holy Virgin, Ukrainian Orthodox Church

12/03/2026

Fr Cyril will be In Melbourne tomorrow

10/03/2026

09/03/2026

In His incomparable love for men, the Son of God did not merely unite His divine Hypostasis to our nature, clothing Himself with a living body and an intelligent soul, "to appear on earth and live with men" [Baruch 3:38], but, O incomparable and magnificent miracle! He unites Himself also to human hypostases, joining Himself to each of the faithful by communion in His holy Body. For He becomes one body with us [Eph. 3:6] making us a temple of the whole Godhead—for in the very Body of Christ “the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells corporeally" [Col. 3:9]. How then would He not illuminate those who share worthily in the divine radiance of His Body within us, shining upon their soul as He once shone on the bodies of the apostles on Tabor? For as this Body, the source of the light of grace, was at that time not yet united to our body, it shone exteriorly on those who came near it worthily, transmitting light to the soul through the eyes of sense. But today, since it is united to us and dwells within us, it illumines the soul interiorly.

—St. Gregory Palamas, from The Triads

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08/03/2026

Calendar of Saints and Readings. 9 - 15 March

9 Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
40 мучеників Севастійських
Is. 8:13-9:7; Gen. 6:9-22; Prov. 8:1-21

10 Martyr Quadratus
Мч. Киндрата
Is. 9:9-10:4; Gen. 7:1-5; Prov. 8:32-9:11

11+ Ven. Sophronius, Recluse of the Kyiv Caves
Прп. Софронія, затворника Печерського
Is. 10:12-20; Gen. 7:6-9; Prov. 9:12-18

12 St. Gregory the Dialogist
Свт. Григорія Двоєслова
Is. 11:10-12:2; Gen. 7:11-8:3; Prov. 10:1-22

13+ St. Nicephorus, Pat. of Constantinople
Свт. Никифора, пат.Константинопольського
Is. 13:2-13; Gen. 8:4-21; Prov. 10:31-11:12

14+ 2nd Soul Saturday
2-га Задушна субота
St. Theognostus, Met. of Kyiv
Свт. Феогноста, Мит. Київського
Heb. 10:32-38; Mk. 2:14-17

15 Tone 7
Strict fast – fish allowed
3rd Sunday of the Great Fast,
3-я Неділя Великого Посту
Veneration of the Cross
Хрестопоклонна
Heb. 4:14-5:6; Mk. 8:34-9:1

08/03/2026

Today, March 8, on the 2nd Sunday of the Great Fast, when the Church commemorates St Gregory Palamas, The Very Reverend Cyril Hovorun joined us.

Fr Cyril prayed with us and spoke of St Gregory’s use of mental prayer (or prayer of the heart), requiring solitude and quiet, known as Hesychasm, this Fr Cyril noted, is an important aspect of our Lenten journey, to seek stillness in the Lord.

Fr Cyril is holding lectures in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and we wish him Many Years in his important work.

Monday Evening Lecture; details in comments.

06/03/2026

Congratulations to Fr Yuriy Fediv and the Publishers of the Cathedral Bells Newspaper, as they celebrate 35 years of publication.

In the modern digital age it is a great achievement to continue to be able to publish a periodical, as many of their counterparts have gone to online only, publishing, doing away with the traditional expression which remains a living record and archive of our faith.

Cathedral Bells continually engages our Ukrainian society with the promotion of our Orthodox spirituality. We are blessed to have the newspaper available at our parish, which brings much joy to the readers. Many who have left Ukraine find themselves missing the printed word from home, many are comforted by having this available to them and all of us here in Australia benefit from learning more about the spiritual life and church life in Ukraine.

God Bless your work may it continue.

Fr Michael
Parish Priest

06/03/2026

https://youtu.be/sn7V2vf7Lg4

В Україні триває велика війна, але питання УПЦ та її зв’язків із Московським патріархатом досі розділяє суспільство. Чому попри війну в Україні залишаються т...

05/03/2026

Annual Commemoration for our departed Choir Members.

On Sunday 22 March we will remember Vadym Domaschenko on the 3rd Year of his repose. Vadym fell asleep in the Lord on March 16 2023.

Vadym loved our choir and was a part of our worship and life in the parish, who is sadly missed by all of us..

He is one of many, who contributed to our parish over the years, and with this in mind, the parish will be allocating the Sunday closest to March 16 as a Annual Commemoration, a memorial Sunday dedicated to all of our departed choir members.

We create tradition through remembrance, May this annual commemoration begin a new tradition for us all.

May the Lord Remember in His Kingdom! Our conductors and singers of Blessed Memory that offered their voices and gifts to Glorify God and take us all to the heights in Orthodox worship.

Panahyda to follow the 9.30am Liturgy
Sunday 22 March.

May all their memories be eternal!

02/03/2026

Book Recommendation

Partakers of the Divine Nature. SVS Press.
Metropolitan Job Getcha

Another excellent recommendation for those who wish to know more about their faith and the current life of the church in the world.

Metropolitan Job’s new book; Partakers of the Divine Nature, talks about spirituality and keeping your faith in a very secular world. His approach is about reconnecting our relationship between God and man that has been set adrift in a world that steals our attention away from our source, and how we can lose touch with the first principles of life of God.

There are chapters dedicated to Celebrating and living the liturgy in a secularised world, How we bear witness to Christ in an unbelieving world, Confession and spiritual direction in our church, Creation and the presence of a cosmic liturgy in the Orthodox Church, The theological significance of beauty of creation in the tradition of the Church.

Metropolitan Job’s prior books have been dedicated to the liturgical life of the church. This book is more far reaching. Everyone will find something interesting in it.

Fr Michael

01/03/2026

Church Practice

Contrast

If you attend an Orthodox church for long enough, you will notice the different seasons visibly evident through the church, and how it looks throughout the year.

For most of the year the interior of the temple is bright, of a gold or white colour, or in keeping with our various embroideries and motifs that are native to our Ukrainian people.

Even when we put on embroidery, it must keep to a certain colour profile that illustrates what the church is celebrating throughout the year.

Blue for Feasts of the Theotokos, Gold for the Saints (Apostles), White for the Resurrection, Nativity and Baptism of Christ; Red, Burgundy or Purple, for Feasts of the Cross; Green for the Holy Trinity, Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem and Feasts dedicated to venerable monastics; Black for Great lent and Passion Week etc. You will see more or less depending on how much each parish has in its collection.

The change also spills over into what iconography we display on the tetrapod in the middle of the church.

Throughout the year it is normally the feast of the day or the patron of the temple in our case the Pokrova icon is visible for most of the year.

During Great Lent this is replaced with the icon of Christ the Bridegroom.

Specific icons for the Sundays of Lent are permitted, ie St Gregory Palamas, St John Climacus, The Cross at the midpoint, St Mary of Egypt.

In Cathedral churches where there is a greater critical mass, you will see colour changes even weekly as they are able to change for specific commemorations.

With the beginning of Great Lent, we see the Church change from light to dark.

This represents the time of repentance and the time of preparation that Great Lent makes us set out on. The fact that lent is in essence a two way search party or mission, we go out through prayer fasting and good works to seek God, and, God comes out to find us, this was best illustrated in last Sunday’s gospel where Christ finds Nathaniel under the fig tree. God seeks His faithful servants.

We embark on a journey from darkness to light.

The two photos I have taken are two days apart. Notice the contrast. The first photo is on Chesse fare Sunday, the last day before the beginning of the great fast. The second photo is taken on Clean Monday the first day of Lent.

Fr Michael