ATTACK ON LVOV BISHOP
by Maksim Shevchenko
NEZAVISIMAIA GAZETA 28 August 1996 (full text)

The flame of religious conflict in Ukraine has not gone out. It seems the existence of the canonical Orthodox church led by Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan gives the authorities no rest. The persistence of the Orthodox who hold fast to the Church Slavonic language in the liturgy and who commemorate Patriarch Alexis II and maintain their unity with the entire Russian church within its ancient boundaries--from the Carpatians to the new regions in the Urals and beyond--evokes direct persecution from those who are dreaming of an entrance into Europe.

So, on 18 August 1996, Bishop Avgustin of Lvov and Drogobych was attacked and insulted in Saint Vladimir's parish of Lvov. Master Avgustin conducted divine services in the church, after which he was photographed with parishioners. This evoked hostility on the part of adherents of the Kiev patriarchate. Attempts to reason with believers of the Kiev patriarchate were in vain. "Moscovites to Moscow, Ukraine for Ukrainians, janissaries in cassocks, the land is ours, we will not surrender, etc." The nationalistic russophobes heaped a typical barrage of curses on the Orthodox bishop. These events were witnessed by a correspondent of BBC radio who had come to interview parishioners of both congregations. However instead of an interview the adherents of Kiev practically destroyed the equipment. A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox chruch--Kiev patriarchate gave an ultimatum to Master Avgustin that he make a large payment for the service he had conducted. It should be noted that despite widespread opinion, the Ukrainian Orthodox church is not a "russophone" church. Sermons in west Ukraine always are delivered in Ukrainian. The ancient testaments and the traditions of the Zaporozhian cossacks who stood for the Orthodox faith in the 16th and 17th centuries are alive to the present day. Recent history of the UOC is the history of a large community of people who do not agree with the policies of the authorities which are directed toward a break with Great Russia not only politically but also religiously and culturally.

But, unfortunately, illegality is characteristic for the Lvov region. In 1995 Uniates seized the church in the village Urizh of Drogobych district, the Orthodox parish lost its registration, and now they have closed the criminal case "for lack of evidence," although they broke up the Orthodox priest's furniture and drove his wife and nine-month-old baby unclothed into the street, they threatened and reviled. Parishioners worshipped with their pastor in the next village in a private home. The situation in Lvov is very complex. They will not turn over the cathedral church nor allot land.

In Lvov, land was allotted to the Ukrainian Orthodox church already in 1991, although the adherents of the UOC-KP seized the cathedral and the Orthodox have worshiped in a small wooden structure (ten by five meters and two meters high) for three and a half years. The authorities act as if nothing is happening. The authorities allotted to the UOC-KP congregation duplicates of documents after they added the stamp "KP." They turned over the bank account to UOC-KP.

Neither the regional administration nor even the security service of Ukraine have reacted to the illegalities. Frequent appeals to the regional administration, the security service, the ministry of internal affairs to this day have been a voice crying in the wilderness. Although for the fifth anniversary of the independence of Ukraine the local authorities made a gift to the Roman Catholic chruch: on 18 August in Lvov a service was conducted in the Benedictine cathedral which, incidentally, according to the inventory of the cabinet of ministers is not supposed to be transferred to religious societies. And to Orthodox they allot the land under the cathedral only when they turn over a church to Greek Catholics in Kiev. One of the higher officials of the Lvov regional administration declared that he is prepared to do "everything possible so that the UOC will cease to exist in Lvov district." The local bureaucrats of the committee on religious affairs are not ashamed to speak about their wish the export the Orthodox to Chernobyl, observing that Siberia is a part of a different state.

The Lvov authorities could not have imagined a better way to compromise Ukraine and its leadership in advance of the anniversary of the proclamation of the independence.