The Information and Education Department of the UOC reports that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine performed the rite of the great consecration of the Transfiguration Cathedral on 21 September 2026, the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. On the eve of the feast, the report says, the Primate led an all-night vigil in the cathedral, and after the consecration he led the Divine Liturgy. The house where it took place is the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra in Pochaiv, Ternopil region.
According to the report’s list, fourteen metropolitans and six archbishops concelebrated with the Primate, together with the clergy of the monastery and guests in holy orders. At the Little Entrance, according to the department, the Primate presented Metropolitan Volodymyr of Pochaiv with the Order of the Venerable Job of Pochaiv, first degree, on the 30th anniversary of his service as the Lavra’s superior. The department adds that, to mark the consecration of the cathedral, the superior and the brethren of the house were honoured with the Primate’s charter.
After the reading of the Gospel, according to the department, the Primate addressed the faithful with a sermon. In its separate report on the sermon the department says he spoke about the meaning of the feast, about the righteous Joachim and Anna and about the calling of a person to keep love for God and neighbour, and at the end mentioned the consecration of the cathedral held that day.
Petitions at the service, the department notes, were offered for peace in the Ukrainian land and for deliverance from the enemy, and for the Lord to look upon the people and show mercy to those in various sorrows because of the war. According to the department, the service ended with the rite of glorification, after which the Primate congratulated the faithful on the feast and on the consecration of the cathedral.
The department calls the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord the tallest and largest structure of the Lavra. According to it, the monastery’s brethren built the cathedral between 2010 and 2013; the first, minor consecration of the cathedral and the Divine Liturgy in it were performed on 10 May 2013 by the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), and work on the interior decoration continued in the following years.
The department also gives the cathedral’s dimensions: length 66 metres, width 52 metres, height up to 70 metres; it is crowned by 33 domes, and the main dome is 25.7 metres across. The whole interior, it notes, is decorated with mosaic. According to the department, the cathedral has three altars: the main one is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord, the side ones to the Holy Hierarch Mark of Ephesus and the Venerable Mark of Athens.
Sources: Information and Education Department of the UOC, report on the consecration, 21 September 2026; Information and Education Department of the UOC, the Primate’s sermon, 21 September 2026.
