This year Ukraine celebrates the 201st anniversary of the birth of the great poet, painter and artist Taras Shevchenko. Commemorative activities started on Sunday, 8 March. In the Church of the Nativity a memorial service was performed as tribute to the poet, on the initiative of National Scout Organization of Ukraine PLAST together with the Synodal Department for Social Ministry of the UOC-KP.
Memorial Prayer was held in the temple, where a coffin with the poet’s body was placed on 18-19 March 1861.
The prayer was attended by people of all ages, which once again attests high awareness and concern of the Ukrainian people regardless of ageof the country’s past. No wonder they say that the people alive until his historical memory alive.
As church rector Father Nicholas Salabai commented for RISU, “We were requested by Kyiv PLAST’s center to hold a memorial service today in memory of Taras Shevchenko. We are happy to support it, because our church is directly related to the great poet. As mentioned at the reburial of Taras, his funeral service was held in our temple. Today we were pleased to see the temple full of PLAST members. They stood with candles and prayed with us.”
“This shows that we have secured strong spiritual support for the future, the children who remember their heroes and live with God in their hearts,” he said.
This is not the only event in which PLAST Association commemorates this year the great genius of Ukraine. As Kyiv station assistant Marichka Dovhanych noted for RISU, “We have planned a series of events in St. Michael's Monastery, to pay tribute to the memory of the poet. Today, in addition to the funeral service that has taken place, there is also a quest in our schedule. Tomorrow we have race sports and other interesting activities. We're all very grateful to Taras for his work and we pray for him that he rested in peace and quiet.”