Thirty years ago, on April 15, 1990, Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholics in Ukraine celebrated Easter, marking major milestones in their respective Church histories.
Thousands of Ukrainian Catholics gathered in front of St. George Cathedral in Lviv to celebrate Easter divine liturgy, as the church itself was closed by order of the Soviet authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church refused to vacate the premises despite an order from the Lviv City Council. Additional services were held at the Church of the Transfiguration, St. Onufriy Church and two houses of worship at Shevchenkivskyi Hai. The Easter services attracted nearly 20,000 to 30,000 during the weekend.
Ukrainian Catholic leaders feared that Russian Orthodox authorities had looted St. George Cathedral during the weeks prior to Easter. Approximately 150 to 200 Russian Orthodox also gathered in front of St. George Cathedral to have Easter baskets blessed. There were no reports of violence during the gatherings.
The Russian Orthodox hierarchs refused to recognize the Ukrainian Catholic bishops, as they claimed that the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs had not been appointed by Rome. A Vatican delegation joined the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs during a Quadripartite Commission meeting that was held in Lviv in March, when Bishop Volodymyr Sterniuk walked out in protest after the Russian Orthodox decided to close St. George Cathedral.
Borys Gudziak, who is now metropolitan-archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S.A. and heads the Philadelphia Archeparchy, was at the time a theology student in Lviv. He conducted a spiritual rebirth service at Transfiguration Church, with thousands of “youth from ages 2 to 82” in attendance.
In Kyiv, Easter divine liturgy was held at Pokrova Cathedral, marking the first time that priests from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church were allowed to celebrate liturgy since the Church was banned by Stalin in 1930. Several thousand people attended the all-night services. Services were also held at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Kyiv as well as in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro) and Cherkasy.
Pastoral letters from Metropolitan Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. and Archbishop Ioan of Lviv, Ukraine’s first Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox hierarch since the renewal of the Church in Ukraine, were read during the Easter services. Archbishop Ioan, while speaking in Lviv, noted that it was only the UAOC, not the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate, that could give impetus for the rebirth and development of Ukraine and its spiritual life.
The Easter services included the blessing of Ukrainian folk instruments – liras (hurdy-gurdies) and banduras, an old tradition only recently revived. This had been renounced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which also refused to hold memorial services for the Ukrainian kobzars murdered by the Soviets in the 1920s and 1930s.
Sources: “Thousands of Catholics celebrate in Lviv despite closed St. George Cathedral,” by Marta Kolomayets, “Easter services celebrated by UAOC,” “Easter services in Ukraine mark rebirth of UAOC,” The Ukrainian Weekly, April 22 and 29, 1990.