The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) is ready to support any project for developing the territory of the Tithe Church as long as the church belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, UOC-MP press secretary archpriest Heorhii Kovalenko told Ukrayinskyi Tyzhden.
“Our position was slightly misrepresented during recent events surrounding the Tithe Church. The position of the UOC from the very beginning was clear – to preserve the monument, establish a museum for the remnants, and for services to be held on this place. Whether this will be on the foundations, next to them, or some other place, the state and church bodies should decide together. We will welcome any option that would allow for Prince Volodmymyr’s commandment to be met – to worship here.
“But excuse me, go look what there is now – a dumpster inside a fence. If this is an example of how monuments are preserved – then excuse me,” said the priest.
However, he sees only a church belonging to his denomination in its place.
“This history of our denomination begins with Prince Volodymyr. Therefore, we want this church to be under the control of our denomination, to which Prince Volodymyr belonged. Prince Volodymyr did not belong to the Roman Church and so there shouldn’t be Catholics, not even Greek Catholics. The Kyivan Patriarchate appeared in 1990, the Autocephalous Church at the beginning of the 20th century. They have the right to build churches, but we are happy to see them in our ancient shrines only as tourists, guests, and pilgrims, and nothing more. And we are waiting for the revival of one Ukrainian Orthodox church, and then there won’t be this problem of designating which denomination can have which church,” added the priest.
The priest denied that his church is raising funds for the construction of the Tithe Church.
“No, we are only raising funds for the construction of our cathedral, which is located on Lybidska. Maybe Father Gideon [Editor: Superior of the Tithes Monastery of Nativity of Theotokos] has some philanthropists who will help, but at the general church level we are not collecting donations for the Tithe Church,” said the priest.
We recall that archimandrite Gideon (Kharon) confirmed that the church plans to spend 100 million UAH to build the church on the Tithe Church territory.
The UNESCO and ICOMOS monitoring group, which has studied the state of preserving monuments of world heritage in Ukraine, has given negative reviews of the Ukrainian government’s plans to build a church on the foundations of the Tithe Church.
As reported by the press, at around 11 p.m. on May 25 near the remnants of the Tithe Church in Kyiv, where the UOC-MP wants to build a church, construction wagons were installed.
The head of the Permanent Commission of the Kyiv City Council on Culture and Tourism, deputy Oleksandr Bryhynets from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko – Batkivshchyna faction in a comment to Ukrayinskyi Tyzhden said that for now all construction near the Tithe church is unlawful.
One May 19, the Kyiv City State Administration chose the best concept to restore the Tithe Church. Two projects were chosen, which are to be combined to create a joint project.