UKRAINE: BISHOP VOLODYMYR ENTHRONED AS PATRIARCH OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE KIEV PATRIARCHATE.

Record ID: 648264

  • Title: UKRAINE: BISHOP VOLODYMYR ENTHRONED AS PATRIARCH OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE KIEV PATRIARCHATE.
  • Date: 24th October 1993
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (OCTOBER 24, 1993) 1.GVS EXTERIORS OF ST SOFIA CATHEDRAL (3 SHOTS) 0.12 2.GV INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL/ CONGREGATION AND CLERGY 0.19 3.SCU BISHOP VOLODYMYR BEING SWORN IN AS PATRIARCH AND TAKING OATH FROM BIBLE 0.30 4.GVS MEMBERS OF CLERGY IN OATH-TAKING CEREMONIES (3 SHOTS) 0.46 5.SCU LARGE CANDLES HELD BY BISHOP AND TWO CLERGY,DIPPED 0.52 6.SV BISHOP AND CLERGY BEFORE CROSS 0.57 7.SV TILT UP CATHEDRAL DOME FROM INSIDE 1.02 8.SCU PATRIARCH BEING CROWNED 1.07 9.GV CONGREGATION AND CLERGY 1.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 8th November 1993 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVABJC5NKG4UC0FA5BFGNXSIBU9F
  • Story Text: A former political prisoner persecuted for his religious activities under Soviet rule has been chosen as Patriarch of one of Ukraine's three Orthodox churches.

    Bishop Volodymyr, 66, was elected on Friday (October 22) by a majority of 150 delegates who attended a two-day council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate.

    On Sunday, Bishop Volodymyr was enthroned at St. Sophia Cathedral, a gathering place for nationalist demonstrations in the run-up to Ukrainian independence in 1991. The cathedral is not recognised by the worldwide Orthodox hierarchy.

    The Orthodox faith, made up of 15 churches and centred in Istanbul, views the Ukrainian church as part of the Russian patriarchate, as established by canons in 1686.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, the richest among Ukraine's three Orthodox churches, was founded in June 1992, uniting two smaller churches that have been seeking independence from Moscow's Russian Orthodox Church.

    "An independent Ukraine must have a united independent Orthodox church," Volodymyr told Ukrainian radio after his election.

    "If millions of Ukrainians remain under the influence of Russian Orthodoxy, Ukrainian sovereignty can only be fiction," he added.

    Supported by the Ukrainian government and President Leonid Kravchuk, the church promotes close cooperation with the state.

    Bishop Volodymyr, whose lay name is Vasyl Romaniuk, was deported from Ukraine in 1944 for religious and nationalist activities and spent 10 years in Siberia. In 1972, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in labour camps and five years in internal exile.

    In 1988 he emigrated to Canada, returning to Ukraine in 1990, a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register