STORY: Christmas service in the Ukrainian Orthodox community in Berlin: Numerous Orthodox Christians celebrated their Christmas festival on Saturday. The mass in the Philippus Nathanael Church in Schöneberg was also well attended. Because of the war in Ukraine and the desire to distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church, the congregation there celebrated Christmas twice this year. A service took place on December 25th. On January 7th, the traditional orthodox festival was celebrated. Andriy Ilin, deputy head of the Ukrainian Orthodox community in Berlin: “So many people, so many opinions. There are also those who say no, we’ll stick with the seventh. It’s an old tradition. There are those who say No, we want to distance ourselves from Russia, so let’s switch to December 25. That means that whoever wanted to celebrate on the 25th was here on December 25. And there are also many who still stick to old traditions keep.” The Nathanael Church is actually an evangelical church that makes premises available to Ukrainians in the diaspora. Worshiper Iryna Vakhotska: “Yes, it’s difficult, difficult, because I have a pain in my heart, because our Ukrainian army does everything, everything about Ukrainian people. They want the people of Ukraine to have favors. They want the people are happy.” Worshiper Yevheniia Maksyita: “This year I’m here and my family is in Ukraine. That’s kind of how we celebrate there. But I’m here alone, that’s why I came to church, that’s the most important thing, a family tradition.” Believers also celebrated Christmas Mass on Saturday in many other Orthodox communities across Europe.