Ukraine's schools may begin courses in Christian ethics (07/17/05)

Ukraine's schools may begin courses in Christian ethics

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - For the first time in almost 90 years, Ukrainian children may have the option of studying Christian ethics in public schools.

Including Christian ethics in the school curriculum is an initiative proposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and supported by the leaders of Ukraine's four largest Christian confessions: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Deciding that the need for moral education surmounted any divisions among the confessions, the leaders are putting together a curriculum that will teach universal Christian principles. They've established a joint Church-education commission and are preparing the first textbook.

Father Superior (Ihumen) Yevstratyi said this is a unique event in the modern religious history of Ukraine. "For the first time, different religions are acting in a well-coordinated way," he said. "Our misunderstandings are diminishing. We have found common ground with each other for the spiritual wealth of Ukrainians."

The Christian ethics course won't teach the beliefs of any one particular confession. Interpreting beliefs or teaching rituals, such as prayer, would be forbidden.

The course would give definitions of good and evil, and explain the symbols of the Christian faith, such as an icon, or monuments such as the St. Sophia Cathedral, said Father Roman Nebozhuk, a priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

Children will also read the Bible during class, Father Yevstratyi said, since this book is the primary source for all Christians, regardless of an individual's doctrine, ritual or confession.

"Christian ethics is not religious teaching," Father Yevstratyi said. "The main task is to give children background knowledge about spiritual values and moral principles that are traditional for the Ukrainian people."

For the purpose of cooperation with other religions, the program will also help children become acquainted with different non-Christian religious cultures and traditions, their origins and their holidays.

Lack of knowledge about Muslim or Jewish religions may put a person on guard and cause aggression and misunderstanding, "especially taking into consideration the latest problems with terrorism, which is often wrongly connected with the Muslim faith," said Father Yevstratyi.

The class will aim to foster a tolerant attitude by people of different faith toward each other, he said.

"We discussed the implementation of the subject with other religions and had no problems at first," Father Yevstratyi said. "Now the representatives of the Jewish religion are wary and think the subject might violate their rights. If a child belongs to another religion, he will have a choice to study either Christian ethics or ordinary ethics in school."

The representatives of the confessions hope that the subject will give children the moral and ethical principles that will prevent violence and counter "street upbringing."

The Christian ethics course will not resemble "God's Law," the course that instructed children in the Orthodox belief at the beginning of the 20th century. Among the most important classes in the school curriculum of that time, children used to learn church rituals and how to say prayers.

After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the separation of Church and state. Since that time, the "God's Law" course has not been part of the school program. Only atheism was taught in public schools during 70-plus years of Communist rule in Ukraine.

After the Soviet Union's collapse, many Ukrainians returned to the Orthodox belief of their ancestors. The Orthodox Church has been trying for seven years to get some sort of Christian ethics course introduced in Ukrainian schools, holding press conferences and writing letters of appeal, said Anatolii Zatovskyi, an archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate.

Former Communist officials have showed their religiousity mostly for effect, and it always looked more like a tribute to a fashionable trend, he observed. Mr. Yushchenko was the first president who proposed implementation of a spiritual wealth course.

The plan is for the course to be taught from the first through the 12th grades, officials said. However, there might be a lack of qualified teachers.

Instead of priests of a particular confession teaching the course, teachers of cultural studies will be needed. A two-year program at the National University of Ostroh Academy in the Rivne Oblast is already preparing teachers for the course.

Schools in Crimea, Donetsk and Kyiv have already adopted the Christian ethics course. So far, the subject has been taught as an experimental one.

Five years ago, the subject was implemented in Suhomlinskyi public school in Kyiv. Vasylina Hairulina, the school's principal, said the program is very successful and the children love the subject.

"Only once did parents take their children away from our school," Ms. Hairulina said. "The father said he was a militant atheist and he did not want his children to study the subject."

The position of the Ministry of Education is that the Ukrainian government has no right to force people of other religions to study Christian ethics, said Viktor Ohneviuk, the vice minister. "But if a person is a Christian, we must give him assistance without violating the law or freedom," he said.

About 40 percent of Ukraine's citizens approve the idea of the subject, according to a survey conducted by the Razumkov Center for Political and Economic Research.

"In schools nowadays children may only choose between atheism and atheism," Father Yevstratyi said. The hope is that Ukrainian children will study Christian ethics in schools beginning in September this year.

"Only the ethics based on the authority of the centuries-old history of people and the authority of God's word and Church can be influential," Father Yevstratyi said.

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