On Sunday January, the 13th on the eve of the great feast of Circumcision of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of remembrance of St. Basil the great and the Julian (Old) New Year there was a Christmas concert “Yolka” for children with a family pot luck at the St. Barbara Cathedral.

The service was performed by the clergy of the Barbara Cathedral and Orthodox 9; The liturgy was led by the rector of the cathedral and the dean of the Patriarchal parishes, Archpriest Igor Kisil, co-served by Archpriest Evgeny Protsenko, Archpriest Vitaly Manoli, Deacon John Grigaitis and Deacon Stephen Nagi, accompanied by the cathedral choir led by Alexander Holden.

In his sermon, Father Igor paid tribute to the saints David the King and the Psalmist, Joseph the Betrothed and Jacob, the brother of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem, relatives of the Lord, whose memory was celebrated that day; and recalled the significance and greatness of the family: that “according to the Savior’s words, everyone who does the commandments of God is part of His family – his brother, sister and mother.” He was also speaking about the meaning of Christmas, and how multi-faceted a Christian’s response to Christmas grace can be: Christmas is a time of deeds of mercy, memory of others, a time of gifts, singing of Christmas songs, a time of change towards a new person with new thoughts, feelings and deeds. At the end of the service, the father rector greeted everyone with a traditional Christmas greeting, and thanked those who had been praying in the cathedral for the whole holiday week, and especially to the small choir led by David Stakhnik.

Priests glorified Christmas in the church in front of the icon of the Nativity, with the singing of Troparia and the magnification of the Feast.

After the service, the President of the Parish Council of the Barbara Cathedral Roman Lopushinsky invited everyone to the basement of the church for a festive concert and feast.

The first to perform were the children of the Sunday school of the Cathedral of great martyr Barbara; the children’s choir sung “Baby Jesus”.

The first poem, the famous work of Semyon Nadson “There are countries where people have not known for centuries …”, was read by Christian.

Then, one of the choir members, Marcus, performed a classical guitar piece on his small guitar, and then sang the song “New Year’s Eve”.

Daria Protsenko read the poem “Arrow and Song” by Henry Longfellow.

Then the host of the concert program invited everyone present to perform traditional Christian Christmas songs – carols. The performed were English “Come all ye faithful”, “Silent Night” and “Hark the Herald”, as well as the Ukrainian ones – “God the Eternal”, “In Bethlehem Nowyna” and “Heaven and Earth” and others.

At the end of the concert, with their voices and costumes, pleased us the children’s studio at the Russian School. To the accompaniment of its leader – Svetlana Remnyakova-Ostrovskaya – Katya, Liana and Scarlet performed the shedriwka – “Nowa radist stala”, “Carol of the bells” and “Silver bells”, as well as a new beautiful song “Hallelujah”, inviting everyone to praise!

And while they were still singing “Jingle bells” there came the regular and warmly awaited guest of each “Yolka” fest – Santa Claus, who distributed generous gifts to both children and adults.

At the end of the concert, the President of the parish council and the host of the matinee, Roman Lopushinsky, invited everyone to the festive table prepared by the parishioners and the Sisterhood of the Varvara Cathedral.