Orthodox mark 950th anniversary of Kyiv's Pecherska Lavra amid controversy over participants (09/02/01)

Orthodox mark 950th anniversary of Kyiv's Pecherska Lavra
amid controversy over participants

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - While representatives of all the Churches of world Orthodoxy gathered at the Pecherska Lavra the Monastery of the Caves, on August 28 to commemorate its 950th anniversary, two of the three Ukrainian confessions were absent. They were barred from taking part in the celebration of one of Orthodoxy's most holy shrines because they are considered "uncanonical."

The two alienated Ukrainian Churches - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) - held separate morning liturgies at their respective cathedrals because officials of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the UOC - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), said they would not allow their representatives onto the grounds of the Monastery of the Caves, which the UOC-MP controls.

Both the UOC-KP and the UAOC are not recognized by world Orthodoxy because they broke with the Russian Church without permission and without consulting the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

Later that same day the badly fractured Orthodox Church of Ukraine jointly, if awkwardly, commemorated the event at a state celebration.

There, President Leonid Kuchma told the leaders of the three Ukrainian Orthodox Churches at the Shevchenko Opera House that spirituality is the strength of the nation, and ultimately the state, and called on the religious leaders to make an effort to resolve their differences.

"I call the Churches and their leaders to discussion. Each has its own viewpoint and opinion, but the greater good is the well-being of the nation," stressed Mr. Kuchma. "Ambitions and misunderstandings must be set aside for the greater good."

The extent to which the Kyiv Patriarchate and the UAOC are alienated from the Moscow Patriarchate was evident in the way the priests and bishops congregated in separate groups inside the hall and in the vestibule.

Even the three leaders, UOC-KP Patriarch Filaret, UOC-MP Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) and UAOC Metropolitan Mefodii, although seated in the same row, were separated by as many places as possible, with Mr. Kuchma and his delegation aside the UOC-MP leader.

Earlier in the day, metropolitans and bishops representing all 15 of global Orthodoxy's national Churches, from such far-flung and exotic places as Antioch, Alexandria, Athens and Cyprus, as well as the newer Churches of North America and Poland, took part in the official divine liturgy and anniversary ceremony at the Trapezna Church of the Monastery of the Caves. Not present, however, were Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow, both of whom sent emissaries.

ROC Patriarch Alexei, whose highly publicized scheduled appearance was at the center of a storm of controversy for weeks leading up to the anniversary affair, ended up remaining in Moscow.

Bishop Ahafas of Odesa provided one reason for the patriarch's failure to appear. He explained at a press conference that day that the Ukrainian government had not offered suitable accommodations for the patriarch, so it was decided that he should not travel to Kyiv.

However, at least one Ukrainian government official stated unofficially that the patriarch refused to travel to the commemorations because Ukraine had failed to extend an official invitation, one similar to what had been accorded Pope John Paul II for a visit this past June.

While the pope is the head of a state, the Vatican, Patriarch Alexei is not.

In an effort to treat the three Ukrainian Orthodox Churches equally, President Kuchma, along with an official delegation, attended all three ceremonies, ending up at the Monastery of the Caves for the finale there.

He presented Metropolitan Volodymyr of the UOC-MP a 300-year-old Ukrainian Bible as a gift in commemoration of the anniversary. The president also visited the relic of Apostle Andrew the First-Called, whose remains were brought to the Monastery of the Caves by Archbishop Christodul of Athens of the Church of Hellas.

Archbishop Christodul and the other leaders of the various Churches prepared written statements in support of the UOC-MP as the single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and these were released to the press. In his sermon during the liturgy the Greek archbishop underscored that his Church recognizes only UOC-MP Metropolitan Volodymyr as the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The UOC has been divided since just before Ukraine achieved independence, when several Ukrainian bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church left to reorganize the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church without asking permission of either the patriarch of Moscow or the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. Later the UAOC experienced a further schism, with some of its bishops forming the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate.

While the UAOC and the UOC-KP seem to be moving slowly towards reunification, the remnant of the ROC, the UOC - Moscow Patriarchate, strongly opposes the other two, as does the Ecumenical Church in Constantinople.

Patriarch Filaret, who heads the UOC-KP, explained at a separate jubilee commemoration at the Kyiv Symphony Hall on August 27 that while neither the UOC-KP nor the UAOC were invited to attend services and celebrations on the grounds of the Monastery of the Caves, they felt a need to celebrate jointly at least at the state function at the opera house.

"We are celebrating this holiday with the nation together and yet separately as well," explained the only patriarch from among the three Ukrainian Church leaders. "This is because the Monastery of the Caves is a sacred place for the whole nation. It is a symbol of our need to be united and our desire to pray together."

The failure of the UOC-MP to include the other two Ukrainian Orthodox confessions in the celebrations led to demonstrations outside both the ancient monastery and outside the Kyiv Opera Theater, where several hundred demonstrators from the Ukrainian National Rukh Party, the Sobor Party and the Prosvita Language Society chanted, "Russian priests, get out."

The Monastery of the Caves, famous for its extensive labyrinths of tunnels and caves where monks sheltered themselves from secular life to pray and fast, was established in 1051 by the monks Antonii and Teodosii Pechersky and became the center of Kyivan life after the Mongol horde leveled the city in 1240 and occupied the country. For centuries it has been a bastion of the Ukrainian Orthodox faith and an educational and cultural center.

The monastery was closed in 1926 after the Bolsheviks strengthened their grip on Ukraine, but reopened after the German occupation in 1941 before again being shut down in 1961 for another 27 years. In 1988 it was reopened after the onset of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost programs.

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