Within the framework of pastoral care extended by the Holy Metropolis of Sweden and All Scandinavia, and His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden personally, for our Ukrainian brethren who are suffering from the ongoing war taking place in their homeland, the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Oslo, in conjunction with the Ukrainian Society of Norway, is sponsoring a weekend of prayer and solidarity for the suffering Ukrainian people on May 7th and 8th.
On Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., a solidarity concert will be held at the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Olso, located at Thor Olsens gate 9, 0177 Oslo.
The next day, the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, May 8, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas will preside over the Archieratical Divine Liturgy at the aforementioned church and offer a prayer on behalf of the peace of the world and immediate cease fire in Ukraine at the end of the Divine Liturgy, which he will concelebrate with the church’s presiding priest V. Rev. Archimandrite Alexander Loukatos and his aid Rev. Economos Maxime Lesage.
In his Paschal encyclical, Metropolitan Cleopas noted the following: “The war in Ukraine has undoubtedly served as a source of pain and sorrow; a meeting with death that should not have occurred! We have witnessed people dying, children being left to grow up as orphans, victims of ethnic hatred, physical and spiritual anguish, brutality and irrationality, a climate of toxicity and perverse behavior. These are all conditions to which man is led when he turns his back on God and deifies himself. Having joined in the suffering of our embattled fellow men and women, let us renew our hope through the empirical knowledge that the Risen Lord shall be the one Who will heal all these tragic events, that He shall grant the strength to overcome sorrows, and the indisputable promise of eternal life. We are called to share in the pain with those who are suffering, share in the grief with those who are mourning, and share our common spiritual home, the Church, with the refugees, devoid elitism, especially considering that ‘the others’ are in reality our ‘alter ego’.”

The proceeds from Saturday’s concert and Sunday’s collection will go to the Ukrainian Society of Norway for the purchase of medicine to aid the people of Ukraine.