Two meetinghouses dedicated in Kiev
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
KIEV, Ukraine — The first two meetinghouses built by the Church in the Ukraine Kiev Mission were dedicated on consecutive days in the districts of Livoberezhny and Svyatoshinsky. Elder Robert F. Orton of the Seventy and second counselor in the Europe East Area Presidency dedicated the Borshagovs meetinghouse in the Svyatoshinsky District on Sept. 7, while Elder Keith K. Hilbig, also of the Seventy and first counselor in the area presidency, dedicated the Voskresens meetinghouse in the Livoberezhny District on Sept. 8.
The meetinghouses were built by renovating existing buildings. Members assisted the preparation of the buildings with love and care. Branches have been meeting in the buildings since construction was completed a year ago. But the dedications were delayed until final documentation of Church ownership was completed.
During dedication services, President Alexander Kikhno of the Voskresens Branch detailed the history of the branch and recalled meeting in a building over a restaurant where members were taunted with the smell of good food on Fast Sundays. President Kikhno, who joined the Church in 1992 and was called as branch president two years ago when he was 22 years old, remembers wearing three pairs of pants to keep warm during some Sunday meetings.
Noting the beautiful, bright, clean chapel with white painted walls and beautiful podium and carpeted floors with a gesture of his hand, President Kikhno said, "We have been in the desert long enough, and like the people in the scriptures, we have been gathered in."
With buildings filled to capacity with members in Kiev, it was noted that the land of Ukraine was dedicated 10 years ago for the preaching of the gospel by President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve. The prayer was offered Sept. 1991 near the Prince Volodymyr statue overlooking the Dnipro River in Kiev.
Since then, membership has grown to 4,500 members. President Frank V. Trythall of the Ukraine Kiev Mission explained the challenges of obtaining property rights in a country where private ownership was only recently granted after more than seven decades of communist rule. Ownership is a long, complicated process, he said.
While these are the first meetinghouses to be dedicated in Kiev, one meetinghouse in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission has been previously dedicated.
