Canora – On Nov. 21 during a Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canora, the anniversary of the Holodomor (murder by starvation) was observed with a Memorial Service.
Father Yurii Obukh greeted listeners with these words.
“Dear brothers and sisters, today we stand before a sacred memory – the memory of the millions of our brothers and sisters who were innocently starved to death during the Holodomor of 1932-1933,” said Father Yurii.
“This was not a natural tragedy; it was a crime deliberately carried out by a godless regime that sought to break our people, their faith, their dignity, and their very soul.
“Yet the Church tells us that remembrance is not only sorrow. Remembrance is prayer. Remembrance is a sacred duty. We pray today for the repose (rest) of those whom the world did not have time to hear – but whom God heard. We believe that their sacrifice is not in vain, for the Lord receives every tear of the suffering.
“In the Gospel, the Lord says: ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ (Matthew 5:4). These words are not only a promise to individuals but also to an entire nation that has passed through darkness. As children of this nation, we are called to carry the light of Christ into the world, so that the evil committed then may never be repeated.
“On this anniversary, we not only remember the past – we build the future,” Father Yurii continued, “a future in which we cherish bread as a gift from God, freedom as responsibility, and human life as sacred. A future where faith cannot be destroyed by hunger or fear, because it is strengthened in Christ. May the Lord grant rest to the souls of all victims of the Holodomor in the dwellings of the righteous. And may He strengthen us in truth, love, and faithfulness to our people and to the Holy Church.
“Eternal memory to the innocent victims. Amen.”
According to a release from UCC Saskatchewan on the Holodomor, In 1932–33, Joseph Stalin’s Soviet communist regime created a false famine to eradicate the Ukrainian people from existence. The Soviet government used food as a weapon against the Ukrainian rural population. The Holodomor also wiped out the cultural, religious, intellectual, and political leadership of Ukraine. In committing this genocide, Soviet authorities sought to repress Ukrainian aspirations for autonomy and eradicate all opposition to collectivization and communist rule.
The release states that nearly 30 per cent of the more than 4 million deaths were children. Those who survived faced another tragedy: many were taken to orphanages and left without parents, family, or identity.
That bitter emotion remains palpable today, continued the release. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has forcibly transferred almost 20,000 Ukrainian children who have become separated from their parents because they live in active war zones and are fleeing attacks, or their parents were arrested by occupying authorities, or their parents have been killed by bombs, missiles, or invaders. Typically, these stolen children are assigned Russian citizenship, some forcibly adopted into Russian families, while others have faced overwhelming obstacles to their reunification with their parents and homeland. These abducted children are subjected to russification – an attempt to eradicate the Ukrainian people by stealing their future through the theft of their children.
The United Nations has stated that these actions constitute war crimes.
The crimes of the Holodomor were kept hidden by the Soviet system for almost 60 years. And while the world today has the information and knowledge to recognize and understand the circumstances that led to this genocide, Russia continues to deny that the events took place. Russia does not atone for the genocide of the Holodomor nor for the attempted acts of genocide seen in the relocation and abduction of Ukrainian children. Instead, Russia perpetuates its theft of Ukrainian language, culture, identity, and existence – leaving behind only bitter memories, concluded the release.
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