The year 2025 has become special for our community thanks to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.
This year, the community set a Ukrainian record for mass egg painting, initiated a choir festival, and held a mass race ‘Honoring Warriors, Running for the Heroes of Ukraine’. For the first time, our city was visited by the Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who performed a prayer at the Alley of Heroes and engaged warmly and fatherly with the families of the fallen.
Together with Bishop Petro Loza, we participated in a Stations of the Cross procession through the city streets. We hosted delegations from Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, and Italy. Our city hosted the first art festival ‘Sheptytsky Street Art’, which gifted us with incredible murals by artists from Lithuania, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. We greeted Hero of Ukraine Lyubomyr Mikal. And every day, we thanked our military for keeping the sky over us.
We bowed our heads in mourning, losing our Heroes in war and seeing them off on their final journey with the entire community. We awarded posthumous honors to families, realizing that no award can heal the bloody wound of loss. We honored their memory with a moment of silence, unveiled murals depicting Heroes, and presented the ‘Father’s Heart’ honors to the children of the Warriors of Light.
We thank the year 2025 for every ray of light amidst darkness, for unity, for the strength to be together. We grieve with the families who have lost their dearest in the war and carry this memory in our hearts. For as long as we remember, our Heroes live. As long as we fight, Ukraine stands.