Every second Saturday of the month, Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ.
4pm Divine Liturgy. Next: 13th November 2021

Very sadly, the Divine Liturgy in English at 9-30 am on Sundays at the Holy Family Cathedral, Lower Church, have had to be put on hold. Until the practicalities we cannot use the Lower Church space. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon. Please keep checking in here for details.

Owing to public health guidance, masks should still be worn indoors and distance maintained. Sanitisers are available. Holy Communion is distributed in both kinds from the mixed and common chalice, by means of a separate Communion spoon for each individual communicant.

To purchase The Divine Liturgy: an Anthology for Worship (in English), order from the Sheptytsky Institute here, or the St Basil's Bookstore here.

To purchase the Divine Praises, the Divine Office of the Byzantine-Slav rite (in English), order from the Eparchy of Parma here.

The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email johnchrysostom@btinternet.com for details.

Sunday 29 June 2014

President Barzani: We’ll Make Kirkuk an Example of Religious and Ethnic Coexistence - RUDAW

28 June, 2014

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region— President of the autonomous Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk on Thursday where he met with Kurdish Peshmerga and security forces and pledged to protect the city and make it “an example of coexistence.”




"My visit here is to meet with military, security and political parties and about how to protect Kirkuk and how to make it an example of ethnic and religious coexistence after returning its real identity,” said Barzani in a town hall meeting, addressing Peshmerga commanders and representatives of political parties in Kirkuk.




“I am here in Kirkuk to congratulate the people of Kurdistan for this big achievement for which we have been struggling and shedding blood for years,” added the Kurdish president.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces moved into Kirkuk city and the southern edges of the province following the complete withdrawal of Iraqi troops two weeks ago. On Thursday yet more Kurdish forces were dispatched to the province with tanks and heavy weaponry.

“We have always said, let the identity of Kirkuk return, then you would see the extent of Kurdish generosity and you would see how big and open is the heart of the Kurds,” said President Barzani, referring to extensive campaigns by previous Iraqi regimes to change the province’s demography. “Today is that day.”




Kirkuk is home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians. However, the Kurds consider it part of their homeland and much of their Kurdish armed and political struggle in the past several decades against Iraq’s central government was over the future of Kirkuk.

“We, Kurds should be more open today towards our brothers --Turkmen, Arabs Christians and all the other religions and sects,” said Barzani.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Kurdish Peshmerga forces were able to control Kirkuk, but they were forced to leave the province, promising that Article 140 of the constitution would resolve the dispute.

Kurdish leaders however, blamed Iraqi leaders, among them Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for procrastination and reluctance to solve the issues and conduct a referendum regarding the fate of the province.

“You all remember that the slogan of our (September) revolution that said Kurdistan or death,” said Barzani. “Today Kurdistan has been achieved and we must protect it,” he added, as he hailed the landslide Kurdish victory in the provincial and parliamentary polls in the province in April.

Barzani told his audience in the Kirkuk town hall that a “new day” had arrived for the Kurds, saying, “I am very hopeful that this would be the end of all grief and we would be marching towards a new horizon and a brighter and better day.”

The Kurdish president reassured the residents of the province that Peshmerga forces were there to “protect Kirkuk and if necessary I’m ready to carry a gun and defend Kirkuk as a Peshmerga.”




President Barzani: We’ll Make Kirkuk an Example of Religious and Ethnic Coexistence

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