Saturday, 29 September 2018, on the Feast of Venerable Kuksha of Odesa, numerous hierarchs, priests, deacons, and lay Christians, united in prayer at the Divine Liturgy in the monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Odesa, Ukraine.
The anniversary Liturgy was celebrated by His Beatitude Theodore the II, Patriarch of Alexandria and Africa and His Beatitude Onufry, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Ukraine.
Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and Moldova, and bishop Petru of Ungheni and Nisporeni, participated in the celebration on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Moldova.
After the Divine Liturgy, a thanks-giving service was officiated at the shrine with the relics of Venerable Kuksha, and Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and Ukraine addressed a message of welcoming and greeting to Patriarch Theodore, and then congratulated Metropolitan Agafangel on the jubilee.
Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and Moldova congratulated H.E. Agafangel and awarded him a high distinction of the Orthodox Church of Moldova – the Order of St. Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni.
His Eminence Agafangel thanked patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and Africa and all archpastors united at the Liturgy, and presented them with an icon of St. Kuksha of Odesa.