CHANCELLOR’s REFLECTIONs
Of Sun Jan 31st, 2021 and for this first week of February 2021
Слава Богу за все! Glory be to God for all His many blessings!
One gift that we are blessed with this year comes about as a result of the combination of a “earlier” Pascha (on April 19, 2020,) last year, and a “later” Pascha (on May 2, 2021) this year. What this means is that the Sunday of Zaccheus falls on February 14th, (the first of five Sundays leading to the start of the Great and Holy Fast, on Sunday evg March 14, 2021.) The gift is simply this – we hear gospel readings (on Sun Jan 31st, and on Feb 7th,) that were “put over” from the normal order of readings which we would hear in the fall or early winter, and which we may otherwise not turn our attention to.
The gospel reading which was read on Sun Jan 31st is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, (Ch. 18: 18 – 27,) about the Rich Young Man testing Our Lord. And Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in turn challenges this Rich Young Man to give everything away … and come and follow Jesus.
This same challenge is put to everyone of us. Indeed, we are called to “commend ourselves and one another and all of life unto Christ Our God” at the end of several litanies in our divine liturgy. The key here is to strive to commend all of our life – our thoughts, our fears, our anxieties, and most definitely, at this time of the continuing “Covid pandemic,” and these next several months in the life of our UOCC and our parishes preparing for our 24th (virtual) Sobor in July, all of our uncertainties as well unto Christ Our God.
Our predecessors who served our UOCC on an administrative level sought to ensure that our organization would have a building, a centre, near our Metropolitan’s Cathedral – the Office of the Consistory building to serve the needs of our membership. Through the gifts of time, energy and money, this building was built and has been maintained to date. Instead of photos of church services, this week, (which remain very limited in Manitoba,) I invite everyone to partake of the building report in photos below.
Let us all do our best, by God’s grace, to live, to love, and to serve, commending all our life unto Christ Our God, being assured in His own words that while this is “… impossible with men (people) …” it is (always) “possible with God.” (Lk. 18:27)
з нами Бог! God (is) with us!
(Fr.) Taras Udod,
Chancellor, UOCC
Photographic building report (of the summer of 2020,) follows.
