More than 150 people packed into the small Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Turner on Saturday afternoon to honour the victims of flight MH17 at a special memorial service.
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Organised by the Ukraine embassy and the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, the service focused on honouring the memory of all the victims, regardless of their nationality.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann,Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs Giulia Jones and Shadow Minister for Education and Training Steve Doszpot were in attendence, along with a number of diplomats from affected countries.
The small church struggled to hold the congregation and many were forced to stand at the back.
The front of the church displayed 298 lit candles, one for each of the passengers and crew who were killed in the July 17 crash within Ukrainian airspace.
The sombre service started with the laying of a wreath by two young members of the Ukrainian community, followed by brief speeches by representatives of the Netherlands, Romania, New Zealand and the US.
Netherlands ambassador Annemieke Ruigrok spoke about her country's gratitude for the world's reaction to the crash.
"The Netherlands is grateful and deeply moved by tributes and expressions of sympathy that have come from all over the world for the 194 Dutch victims," she said.
The public affairs counsellor of the US embassy Paul Houge commended Australia and the Netherlands for both governments' responses to the tragedy.
"This tragedy has united many countries but I’d like to note particularly the extraordinary efforts and leadership of the Netherlands and Australia for managing a crisis under the most difficult circumstances," he said.
"I’ve spent some time reading about the men, women and children who were on that plane and they were truly remarkable people, and some of the light has gone out of the world with their passing."
The memorial occured a day after Prime Minister Tony Abbott said 190 Australian Federal Police and an unknown number of Australian Defence Force soldiers would help recover bodies and evidence from flight MH17 in the Ukraine.
