There were several Holodomor memorial events throughout the territory of the Eparchy of New Westminster during the Holodomor Awareness Week 17-23 November. On Sunday, every Parish throughout Canada commemorated the victims of the Holodomor at the morning Divine Liturgies and held a moment of silence and some, even a ceremony. The actual day to commemorate the Holodomor is the fourth Saturday of November – which fell on the 22nd of November this year. Many civil events took place on that day.
Bishop Michael Kwiatkowski was invited to participate in a Holodomor Commemoration at the grand auditorium of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. Part of the reason for an annual commemoration being held at the church, besides its great central location, is that a copy of the now famous Holodomor memorial statue - Гірка пам'ять дитинства / The Bitter Memory of Childhood by sculptor Petro Drozdovsky - is kept at that location as it awaits an appropriate installation in the Greater Vancouver area.
The Sunday afternoon program included amazing song selections by choirs, including Lyrika, … poetry recitals by a large group of children and… amazing musical performances by the “Suzir’ya” String Quartet. Several speeches and messages of support were given, including Order of Canada recipient David McCann and the President of the British Columbia Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Iryna Shyroka.
Bishop Michael and the pastor of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Fr. Roman Tsaplan spoke a few words to the sad occasion and then asked everyone to join in the Lord’s Prayer led by the choir. They spoke of how we must truly be strong in prayer and in our vigilance to diffuse the hatred and prejudice that led to the horrible Holodomor that saw the Russian Communist Soviet Regime attempt a genocide of the Ukrainian People by intentionally starving to death millions upon millions of men women and children.
Besides the heartbreaking commemoration of the Holodomor and the millions of innocent victims who perished in this genocide, participants were faced with the sad reminder that after a decade of appealing to the powers that be at all levels of government - the Ukrainian community of Vancouver was still struggling to be granted an appropriate corner somewhere in the entire greater Vancouver area for the little girl statue to be erected.
We remember the horrific Holodomor – especially the millions of victims… even as hundreds of thousands more are being killed and maimed and their homeland destroyed in Ukraine at the hands of the same perpetrators of the famine. Remember them in your prayer. Pray for peace and that we all would be inspired to be instruments of the that peace - in our daily lives.
On the previous day, Saturday 22 November 2025, staff, parents and students of the Eparchial school “Ridne Slovo” also participated in a large Holodomor Commemoration in Downtown Vancouver with various displays, presentations and messages. The Vicar General of the Eparchy of New Westminster, Very Rev. Mykhailo Ozorovych lead the crowd in a Panakhyda requiem service for the repose of the millions of souls of those who died in 1932-1933 man-made famine.
