On 28 July 2001 the cross for the newly-restored Cathedral of St. Volodymyr in Khersones, near Sevastopol (southern Ukraine), was blessed and lifted into place. Volodymyr (Sabodan), Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine (Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate), led the service in which Leonid Kuchma and Vladimir Putin, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia respectively, also took part. A Ukrainian Orthodox group sent a letter protesting that, though the restoration was funded from Kyiv’s city budget, the church is being given to the Moscow Patriarchate.
In his address President Kuchma stated that this event is “an important landmark” in the history of Ukraine and Orthodoxy and goes beyond the boundaries of one country, affecting all Orthodox peoples, as demonstrated by Russian President Putin’s presence. Kuchma emphasized that spirituality is one of the priorities of state policy and the restoration of this temple is one sign of the state’s commitment. “No violence, barbarities or blindness can destroy Christian values,” Kuchma said. He acknowledged that progress is impossible without an Orthodox spiritual basis. President Putin declared “we are present at an important and outstanding event” which “gives us the grounds to say that our countries have entered a new phase of their relations” in spiritual matters and the process of creation. He maintained that “when we come to a place like this, everything finds its proper location.”
He noted that Orthodoxy began from this site (Khersones) and that values such as goodness, mercy and love are truly the spiritual foundations which connect Ukraine and Russia. Before the ceremony at which the cross was dedicated, the Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called appealed to Ukraine’s president with an open letter regarding the fate of the cathedral of St. Volodymyr. The brotherhood is protesting the handing over of “tens of millions of hryvnia from Ukrainian hard labor in the form of the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr in Khersones” to the Moscow Patriarchate, which showed its “lack of good will” during the recent papal visit to Ukraine. (See RISU’s article of 23 July for further details on the protests of civic and political organizations.)
The ceremony was held on the feast of St. Volodymyr the Great, Prince and Equal to the Apostles and the cathedral was built on the site of an ancient Byzantine basilica in which, according to legend, Prince Volodymyr was baptized in 988. A church was built on the site from 1861 to 1899 and in 1920 the Volodymyr Monastery was located there. Then later, as the Red Army entered Sevastopol, a concentration camp for officers of the White Army, who were eventually executed, was established in the church building. In 1924 the church was closed on the orders of the Communist Party of Crimea. The first stage of the restoration work, carried out at the expense of Kyiv’s city administration, is now complete.
Materials for this article were taken from the Ukrainian-language www.ukrop.com and the Russian-language www.korrespondent.net.