UKRAINE CELEBRATES NINTH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE: Sobor's re-dedication held amid protests (09/03/00)

UKRAINE CELEBRATES NINTH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE

Sobor's re-dedication held amid protests

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Inter-confessional disagreement over who should control the newly reconstructed Uspenskyi Sobor (Dormition Cathedral), the centerpiece of the Kyivan Cave Monastery complex, forced officials to turn the consecration of the recently completed project from an open and all-inclusive community event into a tightly controlled, high-security ceremony for government leaders and several hundred faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

Although it was thought that the ceremony, held on Ukrainian Independence Day, would give further evidence of the re-emergence of a unified Ukrainian nation, extensive protests by faithful of the competing UOC - Kyiv Patriarchate after government officials decided to turn the structure over to the Moscow Church served only to accent the wide rift that continues to divide the Ukrainian religious community and Orthodoxy in particular.

The UOC-KP had demanded that all three Ukrainian Orthodox confessions should consecrate the Uspenskyi Sobor and that it should remain under the control of a Ukrainian-based Church or a joint governing body of the various confessions. The Kyiv Patriarchate protested control over the structure by the UOC-MP, which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church. The UOC-MP currently has jurisdiction over the territory of the Kyivan Cave Monastery (Pecherska Lavra) in which the Uspenskyi Sobor is located.

"This is a historic Ukrainian church on ancient and sacred Ukrainian territory, so why is it going to a confession that is not Ukrainian?" asked Oleksander Hudyma, a member of the UOC-KP and vice-chairman of the Ukrainian Union for a Single Local Orthodox Church. "The city of Kyiv spent 59 million hrv to rebuild this church, which now effectively becomes a 59 million hrv gift to Moscow," he added.

Mr. Hudyma, who spoke after leading a demonstration of nearly 1,000 people outside the Ukraina Palace hall, where President Leonid Kuchma and government leaders were attending a concert commemorating Ukrainian Independence Day. He said that the president, in typical fashion, refused to heed his own inclinations, and was swayed by those close to him.

The UOC-KP had hoped that public pressure brought upon President Kuchma would force him to amend the decision. But the president let it be known on the eve of the consecration that he did not believe there was sufficient popular demand for the change. He said that, in his opinion, the conflict was rooted in politics and was organized by his opponents.

"People are sick and tired of political score-settling," explained Mr. Kuchma. "They want to live quietly and build Ukraine. Nobody will be allowed to hinder them."

Members of the Ukrainian government and the presidential administration repeatedly stressed in the days leading up to the consecration that the cathedral would remain the property of the state and would not come under the control of any single confession.

But for the UOC-KP faithful the issue was control of the premises, and activists had promised to disrupt the ceremony if their demands were not met. Other more radical groups that had entered the fracas, such as the chauvinistically inclined Ukrainian National Assembly/Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA/UNSO), had gone so far as to state that they would destroy the church before allowing it to come under UOC-MP jurisdiction. The uproar led militia officials to severely restrict public entry to the Pecherska Lavra grounds on the day of the ceremony and to limit attendance to people who had received special invitations.

Nearly 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside the Lavra, one of the holiest sites of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, with placards and banners critical of Mr. Kuchma, who many believe was the decisive voice behind the decision to give the cathedral to Moscow. The president's spouse is an active supporter of the UOC-MP.

Neither the protesters - nor the invited, for that matter - knew the ceremony had been moved forward an hour from its scheduled noontime start to avoid potential conflict. Before most anyone was in place, the presidential cavalcade unexpectedly pulled up at the main gate to the monastery complex at 11 a.m. The premature arrival left the fewer than 300 demonstrators who had arrived early disorganized and unable to voice their protests before President Kuchma and his entourage scooted inside the grounds.

The president led an official delegation that also included Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch, First Vice Prime Minister Yevhen Yekhanurov and Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko. They, along with the 500 or so who had arrived early and had to pass three security checks before entering the grounds, watched beneath a bright azure sky as UOC-MP Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan blessed the church and its seven golden cupolas and led an hour-long moleben.

In a short greeting, President Kuchma said the reconstructed Uspenskii Sobor is a landmark of Ukraine's modern history. "This is a tribute and a show of respect to the previous generations, to those who developed the strongholds of our national identity and spirituality," said Mr. Kuchma.

He said that, while working to continue to develop the spirituality of the nation, the government will resist "the kindling of enmity and religious intolerance."

The president criticized those who he said want to cause conflict and upheaval within the country and between the confessions. "I fully believe that those who want a united, local all-Ukrainian Church are sincere, but the drastic methods they utilize do not benefit the Church," he commented.

By the time the two-hour ceremony was completed, the crowd of demonstrators outside the front gates of the Pecherska Lavra had swelled. As the protesters chanted, "For Shame, Mr. Kuchma" and "Moscow Church, get out of Ukraine," Mr. Kuchma and his entourage left through a back entrance.

The Uspenskyi Sobor, originally erected in 1073 at the initiative of St. Theodosius of the Caves and financed by Grand Prince Sviatoslav Yaroslavych, was destroyed in November 1941 by the Soviet Red Army several months after it had fled Kyiv during the Nazi German onslaught. Prior to the evacuation of the city in September, the Soviets placed mines beneath the cathedral which were later detonated.

Preparations for the reconstruction of the cathedral began after Mr. Kuchma issued a presidential decree in 1996. The president buried a time capsule in the structure's foundations on November 21, 1998, which signaled the beginning of the construction effort. A cross placed atop the central cupola on October 28, 1999, marked the completion of the building's outer structure, which is designed in a style typical of the Princely Era of Kyivan Rus' and has elements of the later Kozak Baroque style.

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