Installed thanks to believers from different countries
St. Alexander’s Cathedral in Kyiv is marking its 160th anniversary this year (consecrated in 1842, under Nicholas I). Intensive preparations for the jubilee are underway. Among other things, the cathedral has been enriched with two precious objects: a copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration done in the middle nineteenth century, the original painting of the early sixteenth century being in a Vatican museum, just restored by Vitaly Maiboroda, student at the National Art Academy, after several years of painstaking work, for the copy had been in a lamentable condition after the cathedral was closed by the Soviets. The copy is already installed, attracting one with the freshness of its colors compared to the original. The other addition is, I am sure, of great importance for all residents of the capital. A big pipe organ is being installed and is expected to become operational in several months (heretofore the cathedral had to make do with a small electric organ). Vicar Viktor Makovsky of the cathedral says, “We had planned to install the organ prior to Pope John Paul II’s visit, but there was no money to bring the instrument from Germany. This organ is a product of M. Weise Platling/BAYERN and it was presented to us by the parish of St. Magdalena in the city of Herzogenaurach in Bavaria. But transporting, installing, and adjusting everything required considerable expense. Fortunately, all our problems are history, owing to financial aid from several institutions and private individuals, above all thanks to the Triumph of the Heart benevolent association. Also our special thanks are due several Kyiv residents of means (I have no right to identify them, for they want to remain anonymous, in pursuance of the Gospels). Cardinal Joseph Glemp, primate of the Polish Catholic Church, also took an interest in the organ. He had visited Kyiv in 1988 to attend the festivities commemorating the millennium of the baptism of Rus’ and was very impressed by the city. On hearing about our problems, he contributed some of the parishioners’ donations. A considerable sum was collected by the families of the Latin American ambassadors in Kyiv. And our parishioners contributed what each of them could. And so the organ will be made operational by the 160th anniversary of the cathedral.”
In fact, the organ’s singular voice (actually, 41 voices) can be heard even now, tender like a flute, then formidable like a blast of thunder. Father Viktor invited The Day’s journalist to the choir gallery where Polish tuners, brothers Eugeniusz and Stanislaw Wojciech, together with Grzegorz Balchan, were at work. They said the new organ has 2,600 pipes, the smallest being shorter than a centimeter and the largest (seen by all) six meters high and 40 cm. in diameter. Every pipe is tuned separately and the tuner can hear it from a multitude of sounds. Of course, it takes a perfect ear for music, but the tuners did not seem very proud of it, saying it was a professional habit that could be acquired by constant practicing (probably assuming that all people have an ear for music). They enthusiastically and proudly showed the pipes, the keyboards (four, three manual and one pedal), and tuning techniques (they even allowed me to use my lungs on several pipes, resulting in a cacophony, and I told myself that being a journalist entitled one to certain privileges).
The cathedral’s organist, Ms. Olha Dmytrenko, graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory, kindly offered me a brief discourse on the history of organ music in Kyiv. Far from all organs are properly installed, it appears, which has an adverse effect on the sound, and not all are properly maintained. St. Alexander’s Cathedral is a happy exception with its excellent acoustics. As an illustration and much to everybody’s delight, she sat and played several Bach movements. It was extraordinary to stand nearby and listen to that Heavenly thunder. The vicar forane said the organ would be used not only in divine service. Before long the cathedral will host concerts of organ music. Negotiations are underway with several organists in Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere. So we can look forward to this summer’s concert cycle. Incidentally, St. Alexander’s has for a number of years accommodated free concerts by Kyiv choirs and instrumental groups.
I asked the Rev. Viktor about his parish. It consists of Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, English, and German-speaking religious communities, and services are celebrated in these languages on a regular basis, sometimes even in Czech. Every Sunday mass is attended by some 2,000 faithful and the number reaches 4,000 on holy days. Most people attend services in Ukrainian and Polish. Mass in English is conducted by the Rev. Philip Crow, of Ireland, and is attended by 300 parishioners. Obviously, the resolutions of the second Vatican Council, concerning the language of divine service, are not just paperwork. Also, the Catholic clergy has to shoulder quite some physical and intellectual burden.
There are five clergymen and, in addition to divine services, they visit ailing parishioners every first Friday of the month. The names of the impoverished faithful are made known to the Caritas benevolent association and they help as best they can. The clergymen also serve twelve villages in the Chornobyl area (including Romanivka and Fedorivka), 300 km. from Kyiv. Those used to be thriving Polish settlements, now abandoned, with a handful of aging forlorn residents, so Catholic priests are perhaps the only persons visiting their places. “It happens that you visit not a parishioner but his fresh grave and serve the Mass for the Dead,” says Father Viktor.
The vicar forane tries to be on friendly terms with his Christian neighbors. Sometimes it works and there were cases when he and the Rev. Yuri Boiko (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) blessed Ukrainian-Polish marriages or celebrated ecumenical services together with Archbishop Ihor Isichenko. They uphold neighborly relations with the German Lutheran Church. However, a hand outstretched in a gesture of friendship toward Christians is not always shook warmly; this is especially true of Orthodox communities, particularly the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Meanwhile, the Rev. Viktor is sure that “being Christian means loving fellow human beings and admitting one’s sins.”
P.S.: The Rev. Viktor Makovsky was born in 1970, in Zhytomyr. After finishing vocational training school he was drafted into the Soviet Army and served in Kazakhstan. A graduate of a higher theological seminary in Belarus, he has been with St. Alexander’s since 1995, starting as a deacon.
