www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Beauty of G-d's House

Hello all:

It's always quite inspiring to see Byzantine Churches (both Catholic & Orthodox) to have the fullness of Byzantine tradition. And what's even more inspiring is to make it such a beautiful place to worship the Lord.

What is your favorite parish to go to for such an inspiration? What parish is the most beautiful that you guys have been into?

As the saying goes: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

My most favorite of all time is the Sts. Volodymyr & Ohla Church Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Chicago. I've been there couple times. And truly I tell you, I did NOT know whether I was in heaven or on earth. It was so beautiful and the Divine Liturgy was extremely beautiful. It is the most Orthodox I've seen in the Byzantine Catholic parish so far.

What's most interesting is that, just down a block or two, there is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas for Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Eparchy of St. Nicholas).

I asked somebody why are these two churches so close together (a block or two apart)? They said it's because there are LOTS of Ukie Catholics around. And each of these two churches have 3 to 4 Divine Liturgies each Sundays! The churches would be packed!

Please share with me your favorite places and would love to see a photo of the Church if there are any. Of course would love to see the beautiful Orthodox Churches as well.

G-d bless.

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

Sts. Volodymyr & Ohla Church [ukrainianchicago.com]

I love the Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity - St. Sergius lavra. For me its is the embodiment of Holy Rus'. It is solidand sober - the product of true Russian Orthodox spirituality instead of some nasty sugary, westernised Baroque. I feel the Lord especially blessed me here, in that the Gospel of a molieben meant that as everyone stood still I was left standing in front of the relics of St Sergei. It was then that I asked the blessing of St Sergei to become a monk.

This place is so special that I dedicated my monastic kellion to the Trinity and St Sergei.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Father Mark, bless!

I have heard many wonderful descriptions of Troitsa-Sergieva Lavra at Sergiev Posad. And I certainly agree with you about the embodiment of Holy Rus'. I hope that my health and finances would permit me to someday make pilgrimage to Sergiev Posad, to golden-domed Kiev, and also to Valaam Monastery.

I have an ikon of St. Sergiy Radonezhskiy with scenes from his life, in my ikon corner.

Kissing your right hand,

Timothy, servant of God

Dearest brother in Christ, Timothy,

May the All-Merciful Lord bless you.

I particularly love the Trinity cathedral because it is so rooted in pure Orthodox culture. The main cathedral of the Nevsky lavra in St Petersburg is elegant; St Isaacs cathedral and the Kazan Cathedral are impressive - yet, to this Old Ritualist, they are not sacred. Edifices such as these are sad symbols of an age when Orthodox Russia had a great inferiority complex. Imperial Russia was embarassed by a percieved crudeness and naivity in the great creations of Russian Orthodox culture. The Baroque creeps in and, in trying to compete with the west in its elegance and refinement, Orthodox art and architecture totally looses its simple, holy genius and the sheer 'other-worldliness'. The profound becomes trivial and spiritual depth is replaced by aesthetic shallowness. This is why I would rather have one wooden Carpatho-Russian Church than fifty Kyivan baroque cathedrals.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

I guess you would have to divide that question between places you have actually been, or places you would like to go.

As far as places I have been, my first vote goes for St. Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brampton, Ontario. Archpriest Roman Galadza has truly done miraculous work there with restoring Orthodox worship in the Kyivan tradition: www.saintelias.com [saintelias.com]

My second place is a tie between Alex's church, St. Nicholas in Toronto and Sts. Volodymyr and Olha in Chicago.

Sts. Volodymyr and Olha (V&O as it is called it in the Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago) has a much more complex history than that indicated above by SPDundas. In the late 1960s Bishop +Yaroslav Gabbro introduced the Gregorian (New) Calendar at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Chicago.

This created quite a stir amongst the community, and a group petitioned Patriarch +Josyp Slipyj directly for permission to erect Sts. Volodymyr and Olha two blocks south near Superior and Oakley, which was promptly given. It made it to local and even national news during the most heated moments of the rift.

V&O has remained not only faithful to the Old Calendar, but to a more traditional parish liturgical life as well with Saturday night and feastday Vespers, Matins, etc. The current pastor of V&O, Father Ivan Krotec', is a wonderful and holy man.

Relations between the two churches of V&O and St. Nicholas Cathedral, located only two blocks apart in Ukrainian Village in Chicago, separated by Chicago Avenue, were not good for many years. But the rift has been healed over time and you can see people from either parish at functions at the other now, something that would not have happened in the 1970s or even 1980s. I have served at both V&O and St. Nicholas Cathedral, but I have to say that I prefer V&O. The iconography, wall mosaics, and carved wooden iconostasis at V&O are truly breathtaking.

In terms of places I would like to go, I think the Pecherska Lavra, St. Sofia and the churches of Kyiv would have to be included in those, the home of the ascetic and liturgical life of Kyivan Rus'.

The Cathedral of St. Louis, while technically not a Byzantine church, has many of the Byzantine architectural elements (central dome, etc.). Furthermore, the Saint Louis Mission Parish set up a portable iconostas and had Divine Liturgy there for several years before recently moving to a new home.

This church has the world's largest collection of mosaics, (Over 80,000 sq. ft. if memory serves), the majority in shimmering gold. Walking into this church from the hustle and bustle of the city is almost guaranteed to take the breath away from a first time visitor. The official website [http] of the cathedral doesn't do it justice.

-- Ed Klages

WOW! The Church in Missouri is breathtaking.

I've always been very inspired by the Christ Proctocrantor (sp?) Icon in the dome of any Churches. It's gives me a warm feeling that G-d is looking over me but at the same time I feel a watchful eye to make sure I fulfill my Christian duties.

Randy, thanks for a short 101 course on history of V&O. It's quite interesting. It's sad that there were rift over Calendars. We can't make calendars our "god" that the world revolves around calendars. So it is indeed sad. I don't care which calendar I use, just as long as we all worship G-d and follow the 3rd Commandment: Keep the Holy Sabbath Day. If we're at Julian, that's fine with me. If it's Gregorian, it's fine with me too. I'm not going to fret over it, so if the Eparchy ever changes back to Julian, I would have no problem with that at all. But wow, it's something new which I learned about the Eparchy of St. Nicholas, so if there are anymore I need to know....oh you know my e-mail address.

Now...Fr. Mark, bless!

Your church sounds so wonderful. Does your church have a website or photo that I could find online? I would LOVE to see what it looks like. Thanks for sharing your sentimental thoughts.

G-d bless.

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

Here are the most beautiful churches I have encountered (on the web or in real life):

St. Ann Byzantine Catholic Church, Harrisburg, PA
My home parish. Site: www.stannsbyzhbg.org [stannsbyzhbg.org]
Go to "Pictures" area on the site to see some shots of the interior.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, Washington, DC
Beautiful OCA Cathedral in DC. Site: www.stnicholasdc.org [stnicholasdc.org] (I think), also look at OCA.org and go to "Events", scroll through the past year or two to see pictures of services held at St. Nicholas Cathedral.

St. Tikhon Monastery Church, South Canaan, PA
Monastery church for St. Tikhon Orthodox Monastery. Beautiful. Go to www.oca.org [oca.org] and look at "Events" to find photos of services at St. Tikhon's.

Nativity of Christ Russian Orthodox Church, Erie, PA
Old Rite Russian Orthodox Church in northwestern PA. Beautiful temple. www.churchofthenativity.net [churchofthenativity.net]

In Christ,

Timothy, servant of God

I heartily agree with the observation by Father Mark. I am much more moved by the beauty of a Carpathian style wooden village or monastic church than even the most striking "Byzantine Baroque" such as St. Andrew's in Kyiv and the numerous other churches designed by Rastrelli in Ukraine and Russia which were so popular with the tsars of the time. It's that old Hutsul thing in me to be a wooden church nut, I guess...

It is wonderful to see a Carpathian wooden church revival amongst the Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Carpatho-Russians, etc. in North America with such fine and beautiful churches as St. Elias UCC in Brampton, Ontario, St. John the Baptist UCC in Hunter, New York, Holy Trinity UCC in Silver Spring, Maryland, St. Nicholas Chapel at the Greek Catholic Union (GCU's) resort in Beaver, PA; and the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox's chapel at Camp Nazareth in PA; and others as well.

Here's some links for some wonderful wooden churches if anyone is interested, both Old and New World:
www.lemko.org/religion/perly [lemko.org]
www.saintelias.com [saintelias.com]
www.gcuusa.com/snc.html [gcuusa.com]
www.users.erols.com/klnorman/HTUCC [users.erols.com]
www.mojweb.sk/outdoor/drevene.html [mojweb.sk]
www.infoukes.com/culture/architecture/tserkvy [infoukes.com]
www.acrod.org/New_Church.htm [acrod.org]
www.rdsa.tripod.com/cerkwood1.html [rdsa.tripod.com]

Unfortunately many of the churches in Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia were destroyed, mostly by the godless Communists.

I have made several trips to Carpathian-Rus' (Transcarpathia, Eastern Slovakia and Southeastern Poland) and have visited my grandparents' Rusyn Greek Catholic & Orthodox Churches which were built with subsidies from the Austro-Hungarian government. These were built in the early 19th century and replaced the originial wooden Rusyn churches built in the 15th-17th centuries. They are humble village churches but all contain full-tiered iconstasis and served the local Rusyn people for generations. There are a few of these wooden churches built in the native Lemko Rusyn and Boiko Rusyn styles that still stand and are truly architectural gems in their own right. While the monumental Eastern churches built by Holy Emperors and Czars are full of gold and splendor , I prefer the "temples of the common villagers". These wooden churches were their most teasured possession.

Ung-Certez

Dear Diak
thanks for the link to the site showing all the old churches. Now I see why they say our little church down here in Roswell, Georgia, looks like a little country church from the old country.

www.byzantines.net/epiphany/temple.htm [byzantines.net]

the drawing does not show that the church is actually surrounding by tall southern pines, so we really are "in the woods". Our iconostasis is very modest compared to most of the older churches. We just completed it last Palm Sunday, 2002.

Thank you everyone for sharing all the sites for your favorite Byzantine churches. I have actually been in only one Byzantine church -- my own parish! So it was awesome to see so many other beautiful churches. I especially liked St Elias, Toronto. The architects were very clever to place clear-story windows up at the top of the wall to let in all the natural light (since you use only candles and no electric lights). Very impressive. They are all very impressive.
Thanks
denise

This link seems to work better for more recent pictured of Holy Trinity UCC in Maryland:
http://users.erols.com/klnorman/HTUCC/churchpicts6.html

Denise, you all have started a new church architectural wave - "Neo-Lemko" (or maybe "post-Lemko"?)

Diak -

Many thanks for the links!

Somewhere in England there is a Carpatho-Russian style Church, built after the war in a dp camp. Sadly, we haven't found it yet.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Oh what a topic... a MUST (I've been there...but I recommend you visit it if you can!) is the Church of St Sophia in Sofia. It is a simple yet profoundly mystic church built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century - plus, they have almost prepared it after a century or so. Opposite is the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevski - its not everyone's cup of tea but I think it is a wonderful example of a Byzantine Church - plus the service at Easter is a WONDER).

Closer to home, in London...I do like the RC cathedral at Westminster but there is a current trouble brewing between people wishing to move the alter and what not. The Russian one is a good one as well - a converted Anglican one..it is suitable sombre dignified and with none of your western decadence of chairs or pews. I went on a history trip to Canterbury Cathedral and that is also quite wonderful (even the various headless angel statues....thank you Puritans! )Sounding tourist'y' - St Basil in Moscow is one...very onion like.

Back on the Bulgarian front, the Monastery of Rila and its Church of the Theotokos is...to me, at least...very spiritual. Also recommend the Boyana Monastery, as well as those at Dragalevski and Bachkovo monasteries.

Anton