www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Kiev Cathedral

When His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis was elected in 2007, [visnews-en.blogspot.no] he was careful to ask for and receive confirmation of his election from Pope Benedict, rather than "ecclesiastical communion" which is only granted to an Eastern Catholic patriarch. The same was true when His Beatitude Sviatoslav was elected in 2011. [visnews-en.blogspot.no] Whether or not one likes it, this is the current reality. But we can hope and pray for better things to come, as both the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church continue to deepen and develop their true identities as Eastern Catholic churches in their own right.

The cathedral will be consecrated this August 18 even though the interior of the cathedral will not be finished. (Source [risu.org.ua])
I do remember seeing an image of how the sanctuary is to look like when completed. I believe I saw it when then-Patriarch Huasr was visiting LA to raise funds for the cathedral. It looked modern and had a large image of Christ resurrected which was in the western style.

eeek!

That is disappointing. Where I live the local UGCC and BCC church buildings are of a traditional, eastern design including the iconography. Like the Russicom in Rome, in all visual respects they could be Orthodox sanctuaries. St. Elias in Brampton, Ontario comes to mind as well. Why move to Kiev and build a Latinized, modern style building except to appear not to be Orthodox? Didn't Vatican 2 call upon the Eastern Churches to return to a more traditional eastern norm? It surely makes the "Orthodox in union with Rome" argument appear somewhat hollow to say the least. Stuff like that sends a signal to the Orthodox world which only reinforces its deeply held fears about rapprochement with Rome. I don't get it. If one wants to be "like" the Romans why not just join them? It certainly makes the parishes and priests here in the USA and Canada who have seriously Easternized their liturgical and pietetical practices either look foolish or leaves them out there in the rain so to speak. Please excuse my carrying on, but the picture and description of the new church set me off,

Perhaps the hand has been tipped.

I take it none of you bothered to look at the proposed design for the new Russian Orthodox cathedral in Paris? And I could point you to any number of Orthodox churches in this country (not to mention Western Europe) that push the boundaries of taste and tradition alike. Bad architecture knows no confessional boundaries.

Agreed, but bad acts by your neighbor don't justify bad acts by you.

Indeed, but more importantly, the Russians aren't claiming to come home in Paris.

I enjoyed watching the enthronement of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav, but I have to admit that the Moscow Patriarchate does a better job when it comes to celebrating the liturgy than the UGCC. No offense intended.

It's been eight years since I saw what appeared to be the planned interior of the patriarchal cathedral. The plans reminded me of the sanctuary [suburbangrandma.com] of Immaculate Conception UC Cathedral in Philadelphia, PA with its arched iconostasis and large mosaic.

What surprised me though was that the mosaic had the more western depiction of the resurrected Christ like this [1.bp.blogspot.com].

I was able to find this image [kyivsobor.ugcc.org.ua] of the planned interior from the patriarchal cathedral website [kyivsobor.ugcc.org.ua]. The arched iconostasis is present but without the large mosaic. The plans my have changed. It appears the sanctuary wall will have stained glass windows instead.

^The links to the cathedral website dont work.

A Greek priest once commented to me that in heaven the western Masters of Ceremony would come from High Church Anglicans and the eastern ones would come from the Moscow Patriarchate!

They are working now.

To each his own, I find MP liturgies over-choreographed.

I'm not much for the overly operatic stuff, but I much prefer, for instance, the change of the Church in the middle of Vesperal Divine Liturgy Great and Holy Saturday. It makes the Antioch use for Pascha seem subdued.