ІізЬесі by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fraternal non-profit association| ШrainianWeekl Y Vol. LVI No. 24 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 12,1988 25 cents Ukrainian Church issues overshadow | Oemonstrations inWashm^on Kiev Soviet Millennium celebrations mark Ukramian Christian Millennium Ukrainian Americans St. Volodymyr statue by Bohdan Nahaylo have recently stepped up their cam­ paign for the legalization of their hold Truth March is site of celebration As the Moscow Patriarchate be­ Church. Last week, a Ukrainian WASHINGTON - More than 500 LONDON -^ About 200 people gins its main celebrations of the Catholic bishop, two priests and two Ukrainian Americans gathered in Lafa­ gathered on Sunday, June 5, in Kiev Millennium of the Christianization lay believers were removed from a yette Park across from the White House around the statue of Grand Prince of Kievan Rus', the question of the train and prevented from traveling to on Sunday, June 5, to begin the Millen­ Volodymyr, who introduced Christia­ suppressed Ukrainian Catholic Moscow to meet with President nium Truth March to the Soviet Em­ nity in his realm in 988, to hold an Church has come to the fore and is Reagan. bassy. The National Committee to unofficial celebration of the Millen­ casting a shadow over the official In view of all this, it is hardly Commemorate the Millennium of nium of the baptism of Kievan Rus'. festivities. surprising that on the opening day of Christianity in Ukraine organized the News of the demonstration was Last week, President Ronald Rea­ the celebrations in the Soviet capital, rally to protest the Soviet government's reported by the London-based Ukrai­ policy of banning the Ukrainian Ortho- nian Press Agency. ^aigani aiAandU ci^vci.vtwAAiiwxca.xacademiciani /-і.ііиж\,/Andrei! wju.n.xtM.Sakha-- botu\JVlxh Thx liet Nel^tw Yor1 Ul kA. Time1 lllA^sa aiianUd thlliCe III r J -Q9 rov both urged in Moscow that Los Angeles Times published articles dox and Catholic Churches and to mark The Millennium demonstration was religious freedom be extended to the dealing with the case of the Ukrai­ the 1,000th anniversary of the baptism organized by the Ukrainian Culturolo­ Ukrainian Catholic Church. nian Catholic Church. of Kievan-Rus', the forerunner of the gical Club, an unofficial group formed On June 4 — the very eve of the With the approach of the Millen­ Ukrainian state. last year that has already held a number opening of the Russian Orthodox nium of the baptism of Kievan Rus', While Ukrainian Americans rallied in of demonstrations dealing with cultural Church's Millennium celebrations — the significance of the Ukrainian Washington, their brothers and sisters and ecological issues. The most recent Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev an­ Catholic question has increased. It in Ukraine were holding a siihilar such demonstration was on May 22 in nounced that the Moscow Patriar­ has become a test case of the Krem­ religious service in Kiev near the great Kiev, near the Taras Shevchenko mo­ chate would be holding talks with the lin's avowedly more tolerant attitude monument to St. Volodymyr. The nument. The event was an unofficial Vatican next month on this sensitive towards religion and a touchstone of Truth March also coincided with the protest calling for cultural autonomy issue. official policy towards religious beginning of Millennium commemora­ for Ukraine. The following day in Kiev, accord­ freedom. The issue of the Eastern tions held in Moscow by the officially Official Millennium celebrations ing to the Independent, some 200 Rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, sanctioned Russian Orthodox Church. organized by the Russian Orthodox people took part in a protest by the sometimes referred to as the Ukrai­ After a prayer service conducted by Church had begun in Moscow — not statue of St. Volodymyr. During this nian Uniate Church, is also one of the priests of the three local Ukrainian Kiev, the site of the introduction of unofficial celebration, which was main obstacles to better relations churches, and an address by Bohdan Christianity - on Sunday, June 5. organized by the "informal" Ukrai­ between the Moscow Patriarchate Futey of the national Millennium The UCC's celebration began with nian Culturological Club, calls were and the Vatican. committee, the protesters marched to recordings of church bells followed by made for the legalization of the Moreover, the fact that the Ukrai­ the Soviet Embassy. They carried icons, choir chants. Two young Ukrainian Ukrainian Catholic Church. nian Catholic Church, as well as the Ukrainian flags and 1,000 blue and girls dressed in national costume read This is not all. Pope John Paul II is Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox yellQw balloons, sang hymns and poetry by Taras Shevchenko, Pavlo conspicuous by his absence from the Church, have been banned in the chanted "Freedom for our believers; Tychyna and Hryhory Skovoroda, Millennium celebrations in Moscow. USSR since the Stalin era, is a sore Freedom for our Churches." while flowers were placed near the He has not been officially invited point with Ukrainian Christians. For the full text of Bohdan Futey's statue. largely because he in effect made the Matters have not been helped by the speech, see page i. Short speeches by Oles Shevchenko legalization of the Ukrainian Catho­ way in which the Moscow Patriar­ and Serhiy Naboka were read, which lic Church a precondition of his chate has excluded any specifically At the embassy, after singing the included excerpts from the pope's 1985 attendance. Furthermore, Ukrainian Ukrainian — as well as Byelorussian Ukrainian national anthemn, the pro­ appeal to bishops of the fourth synod of Catholics within the Soviet Union (Continued on page 14) testers presented a package of Ukrai- the Ukrainian Catholic Church regard­ (Continued on page 3) ing the millennium. Mr. Shevchenko also called for the legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Thimes for Freedom^' sound in northeastern Pennsylvania Church and quoted Pope John Paul II SCRANTON, Pa., - The bells of sands of Jews in Ukraine during the Some 18 Ukrainian Churches in about repression of the Ukrainian more than 95 houses of worship in Nazi Holocaust. northeastern Pennsylvania took part in Catholic Church. northeastern Pennsylvania joyously "We Ukrainians up here in the moun­ the Day of Prayer and Unity obser­ An official from the Ministry of rang out at noon on Sunday, May 29, to tains of Pennsylvania were indeed over­ vances with bell-ringing and special Religious Affairs protested when the mark the Millenniunl of Christianity in whelmed with the community's re­ services. demonstrators tried to light candies at Kievan Rus', forerunner of the modern sponse," Mr. Ewasko said. the St. Volodymyr statue, while listen­ Ukrainian state. The "Chimes for Freedom" sounded ing to a recording of a divine liturgy, The Millennium Committee of U- 1,000 times for each year that Chris­ claiming that this constituted an illegal krainians of Eastern Pennsylvania had tianity has existed on Ukrainian lands. service. The group shut off the tape invited all the churches in the region to Mr. Ewasko was quoted in The The Day of Prayer and Unity, offi­ recorders following the warning. The ring their bells in honor of the jubilee. Scranton Times as saying that the cially proclaimed by the U.S. National militia and KGB filmed the demonstra­ According to Paul Ewasko, who heads official Moscow-based celebration of Committee to Commemorate the tion, but made no attempt to interfere. the committee, churches of various the Millennium is immoral. "It's im­ Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine Yevhen Sverstiuk gave a longer denominations — Catholic, Orthodox, moral because the Great Baptism took and, later, by the World Congress of speech which began with the words, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. — partici- place in Kiev, and facts are facts." Free Ukrainians, was marked by Ukrai­ "Dear Brothers and Sisters. We are He explained that the Soviet govern­ nian communities throughout the celebrating the Millennium on our holy A major Reform synagogue, Temple ment abolished the Ukrainian Ortho­ world. land by the River Dnipro, This is not Hessed, which has no bells, pledged to dox and Ukrainian Catholic Churches, Most communities participated by only a date, but a festive, universal and offer special prayers during Sabbath respectively, in the 1930s and 1940s, and having local churches ring their bells all-national day. We should bless this services on Friday and Saturday, May that on May 29, which has been dubbed 1,000 times at noon. Among them were occasion with all of Kiev's church bells." 27 and 28. Mr. Ewasko said that Rabbi a Day of Prayer and Unity, Ukrainians parishes in locations as diverse at St. Mr. Sverstiuk also mentioned the Milton Richmond asked to participate Worldwide prayed for the persecuted John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic destruction suffered by the outlawed because he knew that Metropolitan Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Church in Newark, N.J,,and St. Mary's Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Andrey Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Churches in the Soviet Union, and for Ukrainian Catholic Church in North Church in the context of Ukrainian Catholic Church had sheltered thou­ their official recognition. Port, Fla. - religious heritage and history. THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 12,1988 No. 24 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY GLASNOST DIARY: Will a new order revitalize recording changes in the USSR In this space, the Weekly would like tion of Ukrainian history. Donbas coalfield in Ukraine? to introduce a new regular feature, The historian died in 1934; a 1946 by Dr. David Marples In an interview in Sovetsky Shakhter, Glasnost diary. The constantly chang­ resolution of the Central Committee of he acknowledged that the future in­ ing situation in the Soviet Union today the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of In June 1987, the Ministry of the Coal crease in coal output will be achieved whets one's appetite for more informa­ Ukraine, in particular, and later Soviet Industry and the Ministry of the Fer­ predominantly through opencast mines.