Metropolitan Volodymyr, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), will not be able to bless the water in the Dnipro River on January 19, on the feast of Epiphany, due to his recovery from his sickness.
“The doctors will hardly allow him to participate in the Great Blessing of Water outdoors,” said Heorhii Kovalenko, the head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC-MP.
However, according to him, it is quite possible that on that day the metropolitan will celebrate a liturgy and bless water in one of the churches in Kyiv.
The doctors will most probably keep the hierarch from celebrating the all-night service.
According to Heorhii Kovalenko, water in Dnipro will be consecrated by the metropolitan’s vicars, Superior Pavlo of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, Bishop Oleksandr of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Bishop Panteleimon of Vasylkiv, reported TSN.