Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine: “We’ll overcome the present hardships with God’s help”

Interview With His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine – On the Visit of Patriarch Kirill

On July 27 the pastoral visit of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to Ukraine begins. The Primate will visit Kyiv and a number of cities in the East and West of the country. On the eve of this historical event Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine answered some questions of “Izvestiya”.

– Vladyka, a year ago Patriarch Alexy II made a visit to Ukraine.What effect did that visit have? Has the situation in the Church changed since?

– The visit of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy to Kyiv had crowned the festivities dedicated to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus. They became central event of the year. For the first time for many years the Church, the authorities and the society celebrated the Baptism of Rus as the central historical holiday of our people. The Primates and the highest hierarchs of the Local Orthodox Church headed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople arrived to take part in the festivities. It is with emotion that I remember of the joint Divine Liturgy at the monument of the Baptizer of Rus on St. Vladimir’s Hill, the speeches of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II during the festivities, it was a high testimony of unity of our Church, born in Kyiv on the banks of Dnepr. Thanks to the jubilee hundred thousands of people in the capital and regions touched with their souls to the history of their orthodox faith.

In the course of the festivities President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko announced issue of the decree according to which the day of Baptism of the Kyivan Rus was made a state holiday, for which we had repeatedly asked. Generations to come, the young people, who took the most active part in the Kyivan festivities will inherit this feast. Talking about the situation in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, it has not changed: the UOC is unified and in spite of all the troubles of our time, it performs its salutary mission.

– Then, bidding farewell to Patriarch Alexy II in Kyiv, You said: “You should come more often than once in seventeen years”. And now there is a new visit of the Primate: what is on its program?

– For a believer the meeting with a patriarch and participation in the liturgical services is always a feast, and the more feasts there are the better. The program of all ten days of the visit is comprehensive and intense: the services and meetings with the faithful every day. The patriarch will visit Kyiv, Donetsk, Horlivka, Crimea, Lutsk, Novohrad-Volynskyi, Pochayiv. Everywhere the people are getting ready for the visit with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. Now the people of our country are in difficult situation: they are both suppressed by the economic and social crisis, many lost their jobs, salaries, live in fear for the future. The Church today, as it was many times before in out thousand-year history, has to fortify people in their stand for life, family, fortify their patience, and belief in their forces. With God’s help we will overcome the present hardships. We have come through even worse troubles. The social mission of the Church in the period of crisis should be aimed at that. The visit of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, besides its main purpose – the witness of our unity in Our Lord Jesus Christ, should fortify spiritual forces of the Orthodox people.

– The Patriarch is expected to come to Lutsk. Are there many parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? What is the religious situation in the West of Ukraine?

– Lutsk is a regional center of the Diocese of Volyn, the ancient orthodox land, where the dioceses were founded in times of the Holy and Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir. The Holy Hierarch Peter, Metropolitan of Kyiv, who transferred the Throne of the Kyiv Metropolitans from Vladimir to Moscow, and the Patriarchs of Moscow are his successors. In the region of Volyn there are two orthodox dioceses – of Lutsk and Novohrad-Volynskyi, which embrace more than 600 parishes, in their territory there are 7 monasteries, there is the Theological Seminary of Volyn in Lutsk, from which many famous theologians graduated. It is planned that His Holiness the Patriarch will call to both dioceses. Throughout the history people of Volyn were notable for their religiosity, perseverance in orthodox faith and were able to defend most of the orthodox churches, when the schism was raging there in 1992-94.

– I remember with what pain you spoke of the schism in Ukraine last year. From your point of view, are the reasons of the schism of religious, historical, political or other nature?

– We are often reproached that we are distressed for the people who got into schism more than they are. The schisms in Ukraine are rooted in politics; they were created by the political parties, by the authorities or under the pressure of the authorities. The politicians, the radical ones, as a rule, even enter the leading bodies of the schism, and therefore the main difficulty of their healing lies in this politicization. When the ecclesial factor is replaced by the political principles or advisability, it is very difficult to conduct the dialogue. And in the meantime there are instances of return of the communities into the salutary fold of the Church. They return with repentance, the priests are being ordained anew. Last year the whole diocese has made a request to receive them to the UOC. This is the church way. Reconciling with God, the people reconcile with the Church. And the steps leading to reconciliation are the de-politicization of the schismatic groups. The less politics there is, the more perspectives of unity there are.

– Here in Moscow we have got some information on the growth of the protestant communities in the East of Ukraine and in Kyiv. Is it true or do the foreign missionary centers try to exaggerate their success?

– We have no statistical data for the protestants and have never competed with anyone in organization of the parishes. Unfortunately, for many foreign religious centers Ukraine is a missionary land, in which the orthodox faith, if it had ever existed, had been exterminated by the 70-year atheist regime. To a greater degree it concerns the industrial regions where almost all the orthodox churches were destroyed or dismantled. It is known that, for example, in the region of Zaporizhzhia they decided to over-fulfill the resolutions of the Party and 92% of orthodox parishes were closed at the moment in times of Khrushchev’s persecutions. Therefore now there are fewer orthodox churches than in the village areas. Now several thousands of missionaries arrive to Ukraine annually and first of all to the industrial centers. I’m not sure that it causes growth of the protestant communities, but according to the data of the State Committee on Religious Affairs, up to the previous year the UOC grew annually by 400 parishes, last year – by 200. By the present we have got 12 thousand of parishes, 200 monasteries, 20 educational establishments. It is less than a half of the number we had before persecutions, but the UOC remains the largest Church in Ukraine.

– After his election Patriarch Kirill said that the most important task was the churchifying of the “nominal orthodox”, the “occasional parishioners”. How topical is this problem for the Ukrainian Church today?

-In the recent twenty years – the time of revival of the Orthodox Church there was a significant quantitative growth of the parishes, churches, monasteries, educational establishments, brotherhoods, church publishing houses and editions. It is natural since there were not enough churches, clergymen, literature. This process continues, today we build and restore more than two thousand churches. The people are poor and therefore the constriction turns into long-term project, and all the funds of the congregations concentrate there. At the same time it is obvious that the qualitative stage of the development of the Church comes, when the monasteries, the parishes should become not only the centers of prayer, but also the centers of the spiritual, educational, intellectual life, social service in the village, urban district. Therefore Sunday schools, educational centers, fellowships. In the actual church life the commandment of the Savior about love of neighbor is being embodied. Therefore those “occasional parishioners”, who come to church to pray and go home with a feeling of the fulfilled duty, should be involved into this activities, live the life of the parish, live its worries. This problem is actual. One should not be afraid to entrust people, especially young, with serious parish affairs. Not only word, but also action is the way to church life. A Christian is born in Christian activity.

– In Moscow they are actively looking for the new forms of missionary work, especially with young people. Have the Ukrainian clergy thought out something new in this area?

– The Church did not arise yesterday, and throughout its history it has accumulated great experience of the missionary activity, aimed at the youth, the present and future of our Church. The art of sermon, witness of one’s own life, attentive attitude to man and his worries – these are eternal forms of the missionary work. It often happens that the priests do not work over themselves, do not read, write, retreated themselves in the area of liturgical and occasional services, and are waiting for someone to think over the new forms, owing to which the youth will rush to the churches and the parish life will flourish. We have to train leader qualities in the young priests, a pastor is to unite the believers around him. In order that people come to the church, we have to leave the church yard ourselves, or go where it is difficult, hard, where spiritual support is required. A priest is not profession, but vocation. It is difficult for a priest to cope everywhere, to take care both of the youth and old people, and the problem families, so it is important to attract laity, to entrust them with church obediences. For example, previous year, on the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus we delegated the program of festivities to rock-musicians, and they have coped with the task with honor, dozens of hundreds of people came to the festivities in the regions, and in the capital there were more than hundred thousands.

– Is the question of teaching of the Bascis of the Orthodox Culture being considered in Ukraine?

– Paradoxically, both in Russia and Ukraine the atheism as state ideology was abolished 20 years ago, and the system of education still remain atheist. At the state level everything is the same, there are changes in the regions – Crimea, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, but it is a result of the joint efforts of the dioceses and the local authorities. On the whole, yet there is no access for the young people to the information of their native faith, orthodox culture both at schools and higher education establishments.

– And the last question. Has the spiritual unity if the people of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia preserved nowadays?

– The spiritual unity of the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarus is stipulated for by the thousand-year unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. She is their spiritual mother. She formed our east-Slavonic identity, our mentality, our civilization. It is a living tree with common roots. The spiritual unity of our peoples is not a myth but reality that does not need substantiation. Having preserved it we will preserve the historical perspective of singularity of the East Slavonic people in the world that rapidly tends to unification.

– ThankYou, YourBeatitude, for informative conversation!

– I also thank you in response and greet the co-workers of your wonderful edition on our common forthcoming feast, the day of Baptism of the Kyivan Rus and invoke the God’s blessing on your labors.

Boris Klin, Izvestiya

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