REMEMBERING THE HOLODOMOR: BY OUR VIGILANCE – NEVER AGAIN

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 22^nd 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.

Holodomor – a Wound That Still Bleeds in the Heart of Humanity

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is that time of the year - the fourth Saturday of November – when we gather to remember the horrible genocide visited upon humanity less than a century ago. We remember the millions of Ukrainians – children, youth, men and women, the elderly people exactly like us - forced to die, and watch family members and neighbours die - a slow, heartless, terrifying death by starvation. The victims of the Holodomor were ordinary people - families, hardworking people, fathers and mothers trying to etch out a living, grandparents, fiancés, young people learning and looking toward the future, little children mesmerized by the wonders of life. Then, as happens from time to time, some who rose to power by deception, calumny and brute force, promised a better life… a life that all must accept or be eliminated. They promoted their position, not by convincing with truth and logic and example, but by forcing their ideological convictions with laws and brutal enforcement.

A harsh revenge was taken against those who did not accept their version of politics. They started to segregate and marginalize groups in society. They began with attempts to scare the masses into submission, then to eliminate them by starvation in an attempt to snuff out any traces of their Ukrainian identity and memory of existence. The result was the horrific death of millions upon millions of innocent lives.

Today, above all, we pray for the millions of innocent people — who could have been our brothers and sisters, children and adults, grandfathers and grandmothers — who perished in the famine, a tragedy conceived by human cruelty and malice.

The Holodomor of 1932–33 was not only a tragedy for Ukraine. It was a monstrous catastrophe that scarred the soul of humanity.

We have no right to forget. To forget would be a second death for them and spiritual death for us. Recalling this period, we not only continue the memory of those who were destroyed, we defend truth from falsehood. In remembering, we raise the cry of “never again”!

This is so important, because the same force that orchestrated the Holodomor has now returned in an attempt to complete their genocidal intentions. This is so important as we see attempts to repeat similar horrors throughout history. The perpetrators and their logic may vary, as the intended victims will also vary over time. But the method always the same! The hatred and calumny of the perpetrating force is often unexpected and subtle. The victims are also taken by surprise as the intended goal is too unthinkable. It is important for us to remember and remind ourselves of the Holodomor, to never let it happen again and to remind ourselves that it can happen and, if we are not vigilant, it will happen. We must also not delude ourselves into thinking that it was only one evil man and his armed forces that brings about the horror --- a Holodomor or a Holocaust or an Armenia Genocide or one in Rwanda. It is also the complacency and fear and lack of moral fortitude on the part of the wider population that does not challenge the illogical and fallacious argumentation and does not denounce the initial bullying and censuring.      

So today, let us bow our heads in a common prayer for the repose of the tortured souls of the Holodomor and of countless other victims. Let us pray for the end of the horrible war now being waged against Ukraine and for the healing of the people, and for the victory of the fullness of truth. And may our prayerful remembrance, in some small, incremental way, contribute to toward the healing of the deep wound still left festering from the Holodomor and toward the mending of the broken trust that should exist between God’s children.

Lord, receive our pain into Your mercy, and may the light of Your truth shine upon Ukraine and upon all lands and may all people be granted the grace to see the Your light and embrace it.

Eternal memory to all the victims of the Holodomor.

✠ Michael

Bishop of New Westminster

Issued at Holy Eucharist Cathedral

New Westminster, B.C.

this 22nd day of November 2025 A.D.