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revised seminary statement
After 1956, exiled Orthodox believers from the Chełm region began to return, and life among the Orthodox faithful was partly restored. By 1989, the Orthodox presence had grown such that the [[Synod]] of Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Poland reestablished, by a resolution of [[March 25]], 1989, the diocese in the Chełm region with the title of Lublin-Chełm Diocese with Bishop [[Abel (Poplavsky) of Lublin and Kholm|Abel (Poplavsky)]] as the ruling hierarch. His residence was established in Lublin.
At the time of its reestablishment the diocese included the central-eastern Polish voivodeships of Biała Podlaska, Chełm, Lublin, Siedlce, Tarnobrzeg, Zamość, and part of Rzeszów. At the time there were sixteen parishes grouped in two deaneries. St. Onufry Monastery in Jabłeczna, under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland , and its Orthodox the [[seminaryOrthodox Theological Seminary (Warsaw, Poland)|Orthodox Theological Seminary]] were also within the territory of the reestablished diocese.
The last decades of the twentieth century saw the building of churches to replace the many that were destroyed in 1938. Renovation of many historic churches, cemeteries, and properties have been on going, of which churches in Lublin, Hola, Włodawa, Kobylany, Chełm, Wojsławice, Hrubieszów, Dubienka, Sosnowica and monastery in Jabłeczna have been already renovated. Also, eight [[temple]]s were consecrated, in the villages of Biała Podlaska, Kijowiec, Holeszów, Zahorów, Zamość, Siedlce, Kodeń, Dobratycze. As funds within the diocese are scarce, further renovation, construction, and restoration of churches and diocesan property has depended upon outside financial help.
