Each year on the Sunday of Corpus Christi, a procession of the Blessed Sacrament hundreds-strong makes it way between the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair near the US Embassy, across Oxford Street, and St James’s Church, Spanish Place.
This year, a station was made at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, halfway between the two Roman Catholic churches, just south of Oxford Street. As the Cathedral Choir sang hymns, the Blessed Sacrament was enthroned on an altar set up at the top of the Cathedral steps. Corresponding with the traditional prayers for England at the Roman Catholic churches, prayers for Ukraine were offered by Fr Mykola Matwijiwskij in Ukrainian and Fr Mark Woodruff (vice-chairman of the Society) in English. After Benediction, a number of the Ukrainian faithful joined the procession to St James’s for the final Benediction