Zhytomyr to Have Uniate Church for First Time in Many Years
History decreed that Zhytomyr always had two large religious communities of almost the same size: Orthodox and Catholic. In the two centuries, when the city was part of the Polish Kingdom, it was made the Polish capital of Volhynia, a center of Catholicism in Right Bank Ukraine, and an Episcopal see. Orthodoxy, which played at the time the role of defender of the interests of Zhytomyr’s Ukrainian population, got its second wind after the area was ceded to Russia in 1792.
Greek Catholics, or Uniates, as they were then called, also had a place in the religious life of Zhytomyr in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although there is almost no documentary evidence left about the then Greek Catholic community, it is known with certainty that the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate), currently the oblast center’s largest temple, was built in the 1870s-1880s on the site of an old Uniate church damaged during reconstruction.
Nobody heard of Uniates in Zhytomyr in late imperial and Soviet times. As the Greek Catholic church was banned, a sizable part of its followers converted to Orthodoxy, while the rest emigrated to the West. Those who stayed behind identified themselves as Greek Catholics in their family circles only.
The religious renaissance in the early nineties also revived the Zhytomyr-based Greek Catholics. Meeting at St. Michael’s Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate) for services, people would exchange telephone numbers and arrange further meetings in the same temple. However, the absence of a permanent priest (there were occasional visits by clergymen from neighboring parishes) kept parishioners from consolidating their community. This is why in 1997-1998 Zhytomyr’s Greek Catholics “went underground” again, as before, because there was nobody to take the initiative in building the parish: everybody lived his own life.
This was the situation when young 24-year-old priest Vitaly Sydoruk was appointed community deacon in December 1998. Born and raised in Kamyanets- Podilsky, Sydoruk graduated from high school and an industrial college as an electrician and worked at a cable-making factory. However, feeling an inclination to serve God, he entered the Lviv Greek Catholic Theological Seminary, serving as a deacon after graduation. When Sydoruk received an offer to head a parish in one of three cities in Central Ukraine, he chose Zhytomyr, although he had never been there before.
“When I came here, the place looked deserted,” Father Vitaly reminisces, “people occasionally visited St. Michael’s or a Roman Catholic church, but there was no closely knit community. I would walk around the city and stick up notices, trying to gather the parishioners. I managed to attract 35-40 people who eventually formed St. Basil’s parish. ”
The parishioners were usually natives of Western Ukraine, who found themselves, by some decree of fate, in Zhytomyr. They were predominantly persons with a higher education (engineers, teachers) who were given jobs in Zhytomyr during the Soviet period. For example, in the Konrad family (Yaroslav was born in Lviv oblast and Tetiana in Zhytomyr) all the most important events are connected with Father Vitaly: he performed a church wedding ceremony for their elder daughter and baptized their grandson. Last year, the Konrads received two gifts on the same day: Tetiana was baptized and immediately thereafter she and her husband had church wedding rites performed after 25 years of civil married life. Father Vitaly strives to transform his parish into a strong and wholesome family full of joys and the inevitable problems.
“I once visited Britain and was pleasantly surprised to see the life of one of its many church communities. All the parishioners know each other... A traditional leisurely chat over a cup of coffee after the service... They observe every church holiday together, as if in a family circle. So I strive to make our parish also live like a close-knit family.”
A house of worship is the strongest magnet for any religious community. Zhytomyr’s Greek Catholics are certain they will have a beautiful church in a few years. It so far exists as a replica on a shelf in Father Vitaly’s apartment. Its graceful Byzantine-style lines easily bring to mind the famous Friday Church in Chernihiv, a masterpiece of Medieval Rus’ architecture, after which the Zhytomyr temple is being modeled under the guidance of architect Valery Holovatenko. The construction of the lower church, above which the higher church will be erected 3-4 years later, began last March, with funds supplied by friendly Greek Catholic parishes from Western Ukraine, Germany, and Australia.
Looking forward to a church of their own (incidentally, the first Uniate temple in Zhytomyr over the past 200 years), the Greek Catholics so far have to use the Roman Catholic St. Sophia’s Cathedral, where Father Vitaly has been holding services for more than four years with the permission of Bishop Jan Purwinski.
On June 16, 2003, the parishioners’ long-awaited day arrived as a cornerstone was solemnly put into the future temple’s foundation. The festive ceremony brought to the construction site all the parishioners, as well as the distinguished guests: Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarch of the Greek Catholic Church Vasyl (Medvit) and Kyiv-Zhytomyr Roman Catholic Church Bishop Jan Purwinski. Is a common prayer of the two churches’ major figures (quite a rare occurrence in Zhytomyr) not a wonderful example of Christian unity?
...They — from twenty to thirty people, a small community of a large city — come together every week for morning service. They are just a drop in the ocean against the backdrop of hundreds and thousands of Zhytomyr’s Orthodox and Roman Catholic parishioners. However, aware of the martyrdom of their church, these people know, perhaps better than anyone else, that faith is what unites people and not disunites them. This new House of God could become a symbol of Christian unity in Zhytomyr, for it will be undoubtedly patronized by different people, and each of them will feel himself member of one big Christian family. This is what Father Vitaly dreams of. Is this dream really so impossible?
