Christian churches in Tulchin. The historical significance of monasticism and the regulation of its life by the Church

Fragment of the Tulchin map. Around 1815

Currently active Holy Assumption Church built in 1789 at the expense of the landowner, Count Szczęsny-Stanisław Potocki. There is only one throne in it - in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God. At the church there is a bell tower (previously it was built wooden in half XIX century), there is a fence around the churchstone, on a stone foundation, built in 1872. The temple was not modified either inside or outside. The builder of the church was priest Pavel Golubovsky. About him from 1820 there was a letter from Count Mieczyslaw Potocki addressed to the then Podolsk Ecclesiastical Consistory. In that letter, the count asked that instead of priest Pavel Golubovsky, who served at the Holy Assumption Church for 50 years diligently and in peace with everyone, and who also worked a lot during the construction of the church itself, priest Alexander Yurkevich should be appointed. This letter was transmitted in 1893. to the Podolsk Diocesan Ancient Repository.

Since 1823 – 1828 priest Alexander Yurkevich served. Since 1828 – 1830 Grigory Zvenigorodsky. From 1830 – 1834 Ephraim Vitebsky. From 1834 – 1867 Joakim Grepachevsky (relativefamilies of Popov and Vigurzhinsky) about whom the memory has been preserved as a zealous prayer book and a kind person. He lived on what is now Shevchenko Street, died on January 2, 1867 at the age of 67 and was buried near the church.

After his death, his son-in-law John Kokhanovsky served until 1884. Then Dmitry Nikolsky served for 2 years. In Nikolsky's place, Pavel Savluchinsky, a teacher of the law, class inspector and chairman of the Council of the Tulchinsky Women's Diocesan School, candidate of theology, was moved to the post of priest of the Assumption Church. In 1890 Fyodor Dobzhansky, a teacher at the Tulchin Theological School, candidate of theology, was ordained a priest at the Holy Assumption Church. Since 1897 The priest of the Vinnitsa Cathedral, Alexey Opokov, was transferred to the Holy Assumption Church.

Photo 1912. Photo 1967.

On the territory of the Holy Dormition Church there were many burial places of priests and significant parishioners. Only two, marble crosses with detailed information, have survived to this day.

Photo from 1955.2007.

During the Soviet era, the temple was closedfor a while, but not destroyed. Priest Dmitry th Alexandrovich Ryzhkovsky in his time" saved " the temple from destruction, namely in the 70s, on the last day before the destruction, “knocked out” a sign about the architectural monument and urgently attached this, at that time inviolable, sign. He also helped a lot in improving the church. Ordered and paid for production at personal expensecopy of Pochaevskayaicons of the Mother of God.

“On the Savior” 1956 from Dmitry. 1975

According to historical data, there were two schools at the Holy Assumption Church: one parish school (since 1887) near the church, and the other a literacy school (since 1896) on the outskirts of Tulchin.

As of 1901, the parishioners numbered 1,230 men and 1,166 women; these were mainly the townspeople of Tulchin, who were engaged in shoemaking and other crafts, selling goods that they themselves produced.

For more than 20 years the rector of the temple has beenpriest Gregory Kurdiy.In 2003 connected to The temple itself and the Sunday school created in 1999 have gas heating.

Sacrament of Wedding. 07.10.2007

Photo: 27 June 2009

Having admired the palace in Tulchin, we dedicated our next visit here to the city. As I already said, the city of Tulchin itself has a very interesting history and architectural objects. So - the city of Tulchin.

Entrance to the capital of the "Kingdom of Potock"

In front of the gate is the Silnitsa River - the cathedral is visible in the distance

Tulchin on Schubert’s map (late 19th century) At the top right is the Suvorov fortification. Above Tulchin is the village of Nestervarka.

When we were there for the first time the city celebrated its 400th anniversary

As we remember, the date of birth of Tulchin is considered to be 1607; when we were here for the first time, the city was just celebrating its 400th anniversary. It's really very modest. But when exactly Nestervar (Tulchin’s first name) was born is not known for certain. Some historical documents do not tell the events of the early 15th century convincingly enough. in a fortified settlement under different names, identical to the name of the modern suburb of Tulchin - the village of Nestervarki. While renovating a local Catholic church, workers found ceramic tiles with the numbers 1599 engraved on them, which may indicate the date of construction of one of Tulchin's early buildings. The Catholic Cemetery Church is one of the first buildings in Tulchin, where Count Stanislav Potocki, who died in 1805, was buried. The big history of Tulchin nevertheless began after 1609, when the Polish magnate Valenta Kalinovsky became the owner of the city and moved, probably, the very first center of the settlement from the northern bank of the Solonka River (where the village of Nestervarka is now) closer to the Tulchinka River, and his son Adam, having received Tulchin inherited, around 1630 he built a powerful fortress, a church and a monastery here, in the microdistrict of modern buildings of a shoe factory and secondary school No. 1. From here began the reconstruction of the city in all directions and its glorious history. Even then, a trade route passed through Tulchin in the direction of Lutsk - Podolia - Moldova - Crimea. In 1629, the collectors of the “smoke” tax registered 751 “smoke” in the city, which was the basis for its population to be about 4,000 people. On June 20, 1648, a brutal assault on the fortress by the Cossacks of Bohdan Khmelnytsky began. They wanted to destroy the remnants of the Polish troops located in the Tulchin fortress. Three attacks were repulsed and driven back to the borders of the modern village of Kinashev, but the rebels stormed the fortress with such force and fury that the frightened Poles finally agreed to a truce and to the Cossacks’ demands to hand over to them all the Jewish defenders in an amount (according to inaccurate data) of about 2 thousand people who refused to accept the Christian faith. The rebels took possession of the fortress and its treasures, and brutally cut down almost all of the defenders. This event, which thundered throughout Europe for centuries, excited the consciousness of the European community, causing sadness and condemnation. Near the current shoe factory, or secondary school No. 1, there once stood the formidable and majestic walls of the Tulchin fortress.
After the mentioned events and the Haidamachina, the Tulchin land experienced a devastating attack by the Tatars in 1665, and subsequently a large Turkish army in 1672 captured the Podolian cities, including Tulchin, burning them as a sign of revenge for the son of the Turkish Sultan killed in Ladyzhin. The city has been declining for several decades. With the extinction of the Kalinovsky family, Tulchin around 1726 became the property of their relatives - the Potocki, one of the richest and most noble families in Poland, and in 1775 Count Stanislav Felix (Szczęsny) Potocki made Tulchin his family residence, fully satisfying his own ambitions and claims to exceptional greatness and glory. The city begins to flourish and be built, successfully trades and becomes famous. Powerful factories, factories and workshops appear in Tulchin, new breeds of livestock are bred, and the best varieties of fruit and ornamental trees, plants, and flowers are imported.

Palace Street and Tulchinsky Cathedral at the end of it. Then and now.

The Holy Nativity Cathedral in Tulchin was built at the expense of Count Stanislav Pototsky in 1786-1817 as a Catholic Dominican church with monastic cells. It was built by English architects and it was supposed to resemble St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome in miniature. Reminds me?.. The cathedral was built with monastic cells. But already in 1832, after the suppression of the Polish uprising, due to the fact that Podolia finally came out from under Polish influence, it was transferred to the Orthodox department. By the highest order, “unnecessary Catholic monasteries, which did not correspond to their purpose due to both the small number of monks and the lack of means for subsistence,” were closed. One of the compelling reasons for the conversion of Dominican monasteries in Kamenets, Smotrych, Letichev, Vinnitsa, Bar, Tulchin, Sokolts, Tyrov into parish Catholic and sometimes Orthodox churches was the active participation of the Catholic clergy in the Polish uprising in Podolia. In October 1835, the former church was consecrated by His Eminence Kirill, Archbishop of Podolsk and Bratslav into the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ. This information was inscribed on a copper plate, which was kept in the temple. Later, at the expense of the widow of the actual state councilor Alexander Abaza, a throne was built in the western aisle, which was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity on August 20, 1867. In 1872, there were 928 souls of parishioners of both sexes in the Temple.
Divine services were held in the large three-altar church until 1928, when “at the request of the workers of Tulchin,” the church, as a house of worship, was closed and converted into a theater. During the German-Romanian occupation of the city (1941-1944), the building was transferred to the church, but already on September 8, 1945, by resolution of the Executive Committee of the Vinnytsia Regional Council No. 1029, the building of the Nativity Church was given back to the city theater and house of culture, and the church the property was transferred to the Holy Assumption Church. Later, a children's and youth sports school was located in the temple building. The temple began operating again in 1991. In the second chapel, on November 11/24, 2004, a throne was consecrated in honor of the Holy Martyr Tsar Nicholas and all the Royal Martyrs and Passion-Bearers and all the New Martyrs of Russia.
Interestingly, there is a legend according to which Szczesny Potocki traveled to the cathedral in a carriage along... an underground passage! It was dug from the palace to the cathedral.

Interior of the temple

The strategically advantageous geographical location of Tulchin on the map of the Russian Empire led to the deployment of Russian troops in the city on its southwestern borders. In March 1796, the great commander, Field Marshal of Russia Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov(1730-1800), appointed commander-in-chief of the 80,000-strong group of Russian troops in Podolia with headquarters in the city of Tulchin. Here he creates and trains the most powerful army in the world, which was already ready to prevent Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The commander lived in one of the rooms of the outbuilding of the Pototsky palace. All the Pototskys' expensive furniture was removed from the room - Suvorov preferred an extremely simple environment - he slept on a trestle bed covered with straw. It was in Tulchin that Suvorov completed his famous work “The Science of Victory,” the classical provisions of which have served military personnel around the world for centuries. Tulchin sacredly preserves everything that is connected here with Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov: training fortifications, then called “Prazhki” and built by Suvorov’s wonderful heroes who were preparing for future victories, and they also dug wells, planted oak trees, built houses where the commander visited. However, “new trends” have already reached Tulchin. On the website www.tulchin.net.ua you can already read about the rivers of blood that the commander “beloved by Muscovites” adored and so on.
In the center of the city there is a monument to the Generalissimo, and one of the central streets is named after Suvorov; the museums contain a valuable and interesting exhibition of objects, weapons, banners, and clothing of those times.

Here again is the connection with Odessa - our monument Catherine the Great and the Tulchin monument to Suvorov - belong to the same author! B. Edwards created a monument to Suvorov, which was then solemnly erected in 1913 on the Rymnik battlefield in the village of Tyrgul Kukuluy, where Suvorov won his brilliant victory and received the prefix to his surname Suvorov-Rymniksky. However, that monument did not stand for long - the Great War began, the Germans were advancing, and they decided to dismantle the monument and move it to Odessa. Everything was done under the supervision of the sculptor himself, and the equestrian statue of Suvorov lay for almost ten years in the Edwards foundry. Later, the monument was erected near the Odessa Art Museum.
In 1946, at the request of the citizens of the city of Izmail, the monument was transported to Izmail and installed near the remains of the walls of the Turkish fortress conquered by Suvorov, where it stands to this day in the same form in which it was erected in 1913 in Targul Kukuluy. Only the reins of the bridle of the commander’s horse are lost and the bas-reliefs that decorated his base are missing. Some of them are in museums of the Soviet Union.
It was according to the model of our Odessa sculptor Edurds that the monument to Suvorov was cast and erected in Tulchin in 1954.

Suvorov, sitting on a horse, looks straight at the Pototsky palace. He was there..)

Tulchinskaya fire station against the backdrop of the cathedral

In 1797, Suvorov fell out of favor with the new Emperor Paul I was removed from command and sent to his Novgorod estate. Some historical sources claim the fact of Suvorov’s farewell to the soldiers of his beloved Phanagorean regiment in the center of the city of Tulchin, when the commander came out to the soldiers in a simple grenadier uniform with all his awards and addressed moving words of farewell, from which tears appeared in the eyes of the courageous and brave warriors. The soldiers touchingly and lovingly said goodbye to their favorite as a father and friend. The further history of the city was also closely connected with the Russian army. In 1806, the 2nd corps of the cavalry general was stationed in Tulchin Baron K.I. Meyendorff, appointed for the war with the Turks and the occupation of the Moldavian principalities. Meyendorff's adjutant was a handsome and stately 37-year-old lieutenant of the Siversky Dragoon Regiment, a famous writer. When the Russian-Turkish War began, the regiment in which he served was sent to the theater of war; here, throughout the war, Kotlyarevsky kept, on behalf of the regimental superiors, the “Journal of Military Actions” (the manuscript of this “Journal” has reached us), took part in the siege of Bendery and Izmail, and in December 1806 he went, risking his life, to persuade the Budzhak Tatars to peaceful joining Russia. For this feat he was awarded the Order of Anna, 3rd degree; further, during the same war, Kotlyarevsky “distinguished himself by being fearless” during the double siege of the Izmail fortress, for which he was twice honored to receive royal favor. The author of the famous "Aeneid" is now considered a Ukrainian writer, which he probably had no idea about. Immediately after writing the Aeneid, he was elected an honorary member of the Kharkov and then the St. Petersburg associations of lovers of... Russian literature. Kotlyarevsky himself called the first author’s edition of the poem, which by that time was already famous thanks to “pirate” printing, “Virgil’s Aeneid, translated into the Little Russian language by I. Kotlyarevsky.” And the next edition was accompanied by a “Dictionary of Little Russian words contained in the Aeneid.” For his literary and educational activities, Ivan Petrovich received a diamond ring from the “hated regime”, was promoted to the rank of major and elected chairman of the Little Russian noble (and by no means “gentry”, as children are taught) assembly. During the author's lifetime alone, The Aeneid was published 27 times. A copy of the "Aeneid" with the author's inscription was kept by Alexander I. And without an autograph - his less fortunate opponent Napoleon Bonaparte. I wouldn’t write, but when you read modern textbooks, it makes you sick

Count Pyotr Christianovich Wittgenstein.
Portrait by F. Kruger

In 1814-1815, the Second Russian Army, covered with the glory of victories over Napoleon, returned from Europe to Podolia. In 1818 it came under the command of the General of the Infantry Count Pyotr Khristoforovich Wittgenstein with headquarters based in Tulchin. Peter Vitginstein, “Savior of Petersburg” - it was he who defeated Marshal Oudinot in the battle near Klyastitsy, heading towards the Northern capital. Later in 1812 he broke Marshal of Saint-Cyr and then the combined forces of Saint-Cyr and Marshal Victor. Recognizing his victories in the Patriotic War, Alexander I appoints him, after the death of Kutuzov, as commander-in-chief of the entire Russian army. Having been seriously wounded in one of the battles, he left command that same year. In 1818, he took command of the 2nd Army and came to Tulchin, where he apparently stayed until 1828, when he left for the war with Turkey. In 1826, Nicholas I awarded him the rank of Field Marshal. “During the command of the Second Army, he lived more on his estate, located 70 versts from Tulchin, and was enthusiastically engaged in farming, reluctantly devoting the shortest time to official matters. In general, everyone loved him, and he was ready to do good to everyone, without exception, often even to the detriment of service,” wrote the adjutant of the chief of staff of the Second Russian Army, the Decembrist Nikolay Basargin
Been to Tulchin and the famous Denis Davydov, hero of 1812. Here's what you can find out about his stay in Tulchin: - "... Denis Vasilyevich has seen a different situation so far only in Tulchin, in the main apartment Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev.(Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army, friend of Denis Davydov - S.K.)
Here, active, highly educated and possessing extraordinary abilities gathered around the liberal-minded commander, among whom the adjutant of the commander-in-chief, the big-headed Lieutenant Colonel Pestel, who was awarded for the battle of Borodino with a golden sword with the inscription “For Bravery”, attracted attention with his knowledge and other merits; senior adjutant Kiselyov, captain of the quartermaster unit Ivan Grigorievich Burtsov, whom Davydov knew somewhat from St. Petersburg; the handsome, hairy-eyed cavalry captain Ivashev; concentrated and thoughtful, young warrant officer Nikolai Basargin, who recently arrived in the army. Davydov got along with all of them surprisingly quickly. Both frank conversations with them and lively debates were true joy for his soul.
And it was all the more painful for Davydov to return to Kremenchug, where the dull gloom of the fairly disgusted government-paper service fell upon him again. Somehow there were no people close to his beliefs and interests in the 3rd building. " *

* G. Serebryakov. Denis Davydov. MOSCOW, "Young Guard" 1985

Second Army barracks building

The building better known as the Barracks of the 2nd Russian Army in Tulchin. In the well-known 4-volume book “Monuments of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR” (edited by Zharikov) it is written that this is the New Potocki Palace, built in 1782. The outbuildings were originally one-story. And previously there was an underground passage from the New Palace to the Old Palace. And it is written that it was here that Suvorov lived. It turns out that Suvorov lived in the Old Palace, and in the New, and in Timanovka... What an eldest, he ripened everywhere. May Alexander Vasilievich forgive me). Who to believe and where did Suvorov live when he was in Tulchin?...
Theoretically, it can be assumed that Szczesny Potocki donated one of his palaces for the needs of the Russian army in order to emphasize his loyalty to Russia. They were rebuilt by captured French soldiers in 1815 into barracks, by order of Alexander I. Therefore, the original layout has not been preserved.

There is a bust of Generalissimo Suvorov in front of the entrance.

Now here is a veterinary (!) technical school...

At the same time, the colonel appears in Tulchin Pavel Pestel. While participating in the Patriotic War, he was wounded near Vilna (1812); upon recovery, he became adjutant to Count Wittgenstein, distinguished himself in the battles of Leipzig, Bar-sur-Aube and Troyes; later, together with Count Wittgenstein, he lived in Tulchin, from where he traveled to Bessarabia to collect information about the indignation of the Greeks against the Turks and for negotiations with the ruler of Moldavia (1821). In 1822, he was transferred as a colonel to the completely disorganized Vyatka infantry regiment and within a year brought it into order. Alexander I himself, examining it in September 1823, said: “excellent, like a guard,” and granted Pestel 3,000 acres of land. But is this the main thing in Pestel? Participating in Masonic lodges since 1816, Pestel was one of the founders of the Union of Salvation, but soon transferred his activities to the Southern Secret Society. Possessing great intelligence, versatile knowledge and the gift of speech (as almost all his contemporaries unanimously testify to), Pestel soon became the head of society. In Tulchin, the Tulchin government of the secret society was organized. It was Pestel who was the author of "Russian Truth" - the Decembrist manifesto. When the Decembrist rebellion began, Pestel had a clear plan of action - These days Pestel is meeting with the general Sergei Volkonsky, and they decide that on January 1, 1826 they can begin to act. On this day, the Vyatka regiment was supposed to go on guard at the main apartment in Tulchin. The route to St. Petersburg had already been laid out, food was stocked, and on January 1 it was possible, having arrested the commander and chief of staff of the 2nd Army, to move to St. Petersburg. But Lieutenant General came to Tulchin Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev, a former intelligence officer in France in 1810-1812, a participant in the Patriotic War, a diplomat who took part in the congresses of the Holy Alliance, and on December 13, Pestel was arrested on the road from the village of Karnosovka to Tulchin. For some time he was kept in the cell of that same Tulchin church - the cathedral.

Portrait of Pavel Pestel
the work of his mother, Elizaveta Ivanovna Pestel May 2, 1813).

Pestel's house in Tulchin. Not preserved

This building, built in 1820, is the Officers' Assembly of the Second Russian Army. It was here that meetings of the Decembrists of the South Russian Society were held. Now there is a local history museum here.

The entrance to the Officers' Assembly is guarded by two cannons.

Sofya Stanislavovna Pototskaya (1801-1875), muse of Alexander Sergeevich

Another place in Tulchin where you can find the Pototsky coat of arms is the house of the personal lawyer of Countess Sofia Pototskaya Svarichevsky

Now there is a children's music school named after M. Leontovich. The composer Leontovich himself worked in this building in 1920.

Directly opposite the house of lawyer Pototskaya is a very nice mansion. Sorry I don’t know whose

Tulchin. Old photo (I don’t know where I got it from))

Tulchin, as I already said, was actively involved in trade. People have accumulated large amounts of capital over the years. Now they have only Dalmatians sitting in their booths on chains. Hollywood is resting))

The rebuilt Catholic cemetery church is one of the first buildings in Tulchin. It was here that Stanisław Szczesny Potocki, who died in 1805, was buried.

Tulchin then belonged Mieczyslaw Potocki(1799-1878), the last owner of Tulchin from this glorious family. However, Mieczysław is hardly one of the glorious representatives of this family. I wrote about the fact that I kicked my mother out of Tulchin, having previously taken all her diamonds, on the page about the Tulchin palace. But its manager was General A.A. Abaza, whose house has been preserved in Tulchin. By the way, the luxurious palace of another Abaza - in Odessa, is now the Museum of Western and Eastern Art. The Abaza family had a daughter - Glykeria - a highly educated and wise woman - the future mother of a Ukrainian writer Mikhail Kotsyubinsky. Later, a commercial school and a men's gymnasium were located in Abaza's house. During the turbulent years of the October Revolution of 1917, there was a revolutionary committee here.
The history of Tulchin as the estate of the Potocki counts ended in 1865, when the estate was transferred to the War Ministry.

House of General Abaza

This is the same house when it was a gymnasium. The inscription on the pediment is “Tulchina men’s gymnasium with rights for students of V.F. Mashkevich”
Photo sent by Vladislav Vigurzhinsky

One of the main architectural attractions of Tulchin is certainly this mansion.

The mansion was built for timber merchant Gliklich in 1912. The photo shows the backyard.

The doors of the mansion are well preserved.

Staircase, high window, gilding...

Inside, oddly enough, the interiors have been preserved in many places. They even treated us to tea and told us about the house.

Assumption Church

Another interesting historical place is the Assumption Church. Built in 1789. Two Russian Emperors visited this church - Alexander I and Nicholas I, Suvorov and the great Pushkin and Kotlyarevsky, the Decembrists and other famous guests of Tulchin visited here.

Church from the courtyard. Below are preserved drains. In church we met who do you think? Of course, from Odessa with Raskidaylovskaya!)

Assumption Church. The photo is obviously from the 60-70s of the twentieth century.

On the territory of the church yard there are two graves - Maria Efimovna Danilova (d. 1873, photo above) and Major General Sergei Grigorievich Davydenkov (d. 1856, bottom photo)

Obelisk in honor of the arrival of the King of Poland Stanislaw August Poniatowski. Don't look for him. He is not here.

Despite the funeral, disfigured by Polish nationalists, a monument was even erected to Stanislav Szczesny Pottsky in Tulchin. But you don’t need to look for it either. He's not there either.

Freedom of conscience for citizens of Ukraine is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine. “Everyone has the right to freedom of worldview and religion. This right includes the freedom to profess any religion or not to profess any, to freely perform religious cults and rituals, individually or collectively, and to conduct religious activities.

The exercise of this right may be limited by law only in the interests of protecting public order, public health and morals, or protecting the rights and freedoms of other people.

The church and religious organizations in Ukraine are separated from the state, and the school from the church. No religion can be recognized by the state as compulsory.

No one can be exempted from his duties to the state or refuse to comply with laws on grounds of religious belief. If the performance of military duty contradicts the religious beliefs of a citizen, the performance of this duty must be replaced by alternative (non-military) service."

According to the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies, as of January 1, 2003, 26,271 religious communities were registered in Ukraine (one thousand seventy-six communities operated without registration). This is twice as many as one thousand nine hundred and ninety-one cities.1 Religious organizations had at their disposal 19,112 religious buildings (temples, mosques, synagogues, etc.), of which 2,332 were under construction. The churches included 344 monasteries with 5864 monks and nuns and 249 missions. There were 160 religious educational institutions with 18,000 students and almost 10,000 Sunday schools. 334 periodicals were published.

The range of religions and denominations has expanded. Today the number of known confessions in the country has exceeded one hundred. However, 99.5% of all religious entities belong to the 25 major faiths. Among those surveyed in 2002, 70% of the adult population of Ukraine called themselves Orthodox (including those who had not yet finally decided on their attitude towards religion), 7% - Greek Catholics, 2.2% - Protestants, less than 1% - Romans. Catholics, Muslims, Jews.

In our opinion, the reasons that contributed to the increase in religiosity of the population of Ukraine were:

A fairly high level of democracy in the spiritual life of society began to take shape in the mid-80s of the 20th century;

The vacuum in mass consciousness that arose after the collapse of the totalitarian regime;

Dramatic changes in the social structure, the polarization of society, created a need for mercy and charity;

Religious and cultural traditions, especially in Western Ukrainian regions;

Intensification of the activities of all religious organizations, their support from the media, etc.

The modern religious situation in Ukraine is marked by a number of features:

A significant number of citizens fluctuate between faith and disbelief. The rest are non-believers, convinced atheists, and simply indifferent to religion. At the same time, almost 85% of respondents said that they had undergone baptism, that is, they are formally Christians, and half of non-believers and convinced atheists attend services during religious holidays and financially support the church.

The religiosity of believers has a noticeably layered, and often demonstrative character and is reduced only to the fulfillment of formal Christian requirements, for example, wearing a cross. Only 20% of believers attend divine services once a week, another 20% - once a month, half - only on religious holidays. A little more than a third of believers know only one prayer, another third know two or three.

The religious consciousness of people, both believers and non-believers, is characterized by noticeable uncertainty. As a rule, they recognize the existence of God, but do not always believe in the existence of the soul, sin, Heaven and hell. Consequently, these concepts acquire not so much a religious, but a moral connotation. Moreover, a third of believers, half of those who waver between faith and unbelief, and a sixth of non-believers and atheists simultaneously recognize the transmigration of souls, which contradicts Christian doctrine. By the way, a 2002 survey revealed only 1.7% of Ukrainians, who, according to a number of criteria, can be classified as “true believers.” These were predominantly single elderly women who lived in rural areas. A long-term international study of modern religiosity in Russia yielded approximately the same results. In SPIA it’s the other way around. By the mid-1980s, more than 90% of Americans considered themselves believers, 60% were members of religious organizations, and 50% regularly attended religious services.

The religiosity of the population of the Western Ukrainian region is generally higher than the religiosity of residents of other regions of Ukraine. Even before the first real steps to liberalize Soviet state policy regarding religion began, the seven western Ukrainian regions accounted for more than half of the registered religious communities. As of January 1, 2003, 80% of the adult population of this region called themselves believers. If in general in Ukraine there is an average of 0.7 religious communities per settlement, then in the western regions this figure is 2-3 times higher.

Cities became centers of religious activity, whereas in pre-revolutionary times and in the first decades of Soviet power, the Ukrainian village was primarily religious. This feature reflects the trend towards urbanization common to all more or less developed countries.

The centers of the spread of non-traditional religions are the Donetsk and Kiev regions, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (up to half of all registered organizations) - regions without an established religious tradition or those where the results of the policy of eradicating religion were the most successful.

There is a personnel problem: if Orthodox and Catholic religious associations have a need for qualified clergy personnel, then in Protestant communities, thanks to their own education system they have created, there are 2-3 times more of them than the communities themselves.

There is a schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Currently in Ukraine there are:

1) Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), which is under the spiritual tutelage of the head of the Ukrainian churches in America and in the diaspora, Metropolitan Constantine (in the world of Bagan), primate - Metropolitan Methodius (in the world of Kudryakov)

2) Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which is headed by Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus'-Ukraine Filaret (in the world Denisenko)

3) Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, headed by Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Vladimir (in the world Sabodan).

Until 1989, the country's Orthodox Christians were united in the Ukrainian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). On August 19, 1989, the Lviv Orthodox parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, led by Archpriest Vladimir Yarema, left the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church and declared itself to belong to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On June 6, 1990, the First All-Ukrainian Council of the UAOC was held, at which the Ukrainian Patriarchate was formed under the leadership of S. Petliura’s 90-year-old nephew, Metropolitan Mstislav (in the world Stepan Skripnik). He lived in SPIA and headed the UAOC in America. The first split occurred in modern Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Further events developed like this. Since October 1990, the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church granted autonomy to the Ukrainian Exarchate, which meant its transformation into an independent and independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UISC) under the canonical subordination of its Patriarchate to the Russian Orthodox Church, that is, subordination on issues of doctrine, dogma, cult, and church organization. Metropolitan Filaret was elected head of the UOC. The Synod of the UOC began to select and appoint bishops to positions and manage the material resources of the church. The process of forming the 16th world autocephaly - Ukrainian - has begun. However, it was nullified by the next (second) church schism. The reason for the split was both objective and subjective reasons. His story is instructive in many ways.

In November 1991 (after the declaration of independence of Ukraine) at a council of the UOC, Metropolitan Filaret spoke in favor of the independence of the Ukrainian Church from the Russian Orthodox Church. All the bishops, led by him, went to Moscow to ask for a letter of release. On April 1-3, 1992, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church considered the request of the Ukrainian bishops and did not satisfy it. Moreover, the Synod deprived Metropolitan Philaret of his episcopal dignity. On May 27, 1992, the Bishops' Council of the UOC in Kharkov, instead of Metropolitan Philaret, announced Metropolitan of Rostov and Novocherkassk (ROC) Vladimir (Sabodan) as its primate. Almost the entire episcopate of the UOC left for Metropolitan Vladimir. However, Metropolitan Filaret did not recognize these decisions. He stated that in such difficult times he could not leave the Ukrainian flock, and therefore, together with his supporters, he joined the UAOC. The UAOC was officially proclaimed in January 1919 by Decree of the Directorate of the UPR. In January 1930, by the decision of the Second Extraordinary Local Council, the UAOC was liquidated with the assistance of its clergy (as recorded in the documents of the council) by the counter-revolution during the years of the civil war and foreign military intervention in Russia. However, the church did not disappear. The UAOC in SELA declared itself its successor. & The center is still located in New Jersey today.

After supporters of Metropolitan Philaret joined the UAOC, active work began to create a new church in Ukraine. This work was carried out within a short time. On June 25, 1992, the Unification Council announced the dissolution of the UOC and UAOC and the formation on their basis of a single religious organization - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). It was assumed that the new church would be headed by Patriarch Mstislav, who was not present at the council. Metropolitan Filaret became the deputy patriarch (this position was established for the first time in more than a thousand-year history of Orthodoxy).

However, life has shown that the unification of churches from the very beginning was of a formal nature and therefore very quickly ceased to exist. But from two churches three arose, and from one patriarchate - two. Patriarch Mstislav did not recognize the resulting church and appointed Archbishop Peter of Lviv and Galicia (in the world Petrus) to lead that part of the UAOC believers who did not join the UOC-KP. The UOC, led by Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), also continued to exist. The number of its parishes did not change significantly, only some of them transferred to the UOC-KP. This religious organization began to be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UISC-MP).

On June 11, 1993, Patriarch Mstislav died and was buried at his residence in South Bound Brook in the USA. In September 1993 A new patriarch of the UAOC was elected, who became Metropolitan Dimitry (secular name Vladimir Yarema).

On October 23-24, 1993, the UOC-KP chose its patriarch, Metropolitan Vladimir (in the world Romanyuk). After his death in July 1995, the UOC-KP was headed by Metropolitan Filaret, who was elected Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus'-Ukraine at a council of this church.

In February 2000 New changes have occurred in the leadership of the UAOC. Patriarch of the UAOC Dimitri died. According to his will, it was decided not to elect the next patriarch, but to ask Metropolitan Constantine (in the world Bagan), who heads the Ukrainian Orthodox churches in America, to spiritually patronize the UAOC. Consent to this was received from Metropolitan Constantine. Formally, Metropolitan Methodius (in the world Kudryakov) became the head of the UAOC in Ukraine. However, in June 2003, a third schism occurred in Modern Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Metropolitan Methodius declared himself Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine and left the tutelage of Metropolitan Constantine. The Kharkov-Poltava diocese and individual parishes throughout Ukraine remained under the jurisdiction of the latter.

So, modern Ukrainian Orthodoxy is split. It is formed by three churches. An essential feature of relationships is the lack of understanding. This is one of the defining features of Russian Orthodoxy in the sphere of internal and interreligious relations. All the time, at its different levels, there are conversations about the need to unite all its branches. However, churches put forward contradictory demands, completely or partially excluding the very possibility of their unification. They accuse each other of betraying Scripture, of political bias, and confiscate each other's temple buildings, valuables, financial proceeds, and even religious educational institutions.

Mutually exclusive differences in views, ideas, beliefs and ideals, in value orientations and social attitudes of the church leadership of various Orthodox denominations in Ukraine invariably affect their flock with confusion, uncertainty, disappointment, psychological unrest and even mutual hostility and conflicts. As a result, Ukrainian Orthodoxy is increasingly losing its specific historical purpose of being a moral defender and comforter of all the disadvantaged, financially and socially insecure, oppressed by the problems of life and disappointed in it, deprived of hope for a better future on earth, that is, those who were discussed in Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when they disgrace and persecute you, and hypocritically slander you in every possible way and slander you unjustly for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you... You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world.

As of January 1, 2003, the activities of Orthodox churches in Ukraine were characterized by approximately the following data.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate numbered 10,042 religious communities, 144 monasteries with 4,046 monks, 8,285 priests, 8,542 places of worship (1,018 under construction), 16 educational institutions, 3,245 Sunday schools, 116 periodicals. The communities were united into 34 dioceses with administrations in all regional centers (except Uzhgorod), as well as in Mukachevo, Khust, Kamenets-Podolsky, Bila Tserkva, Glukhov, Gorlovka, Tulchin, Krivoy Rog, Vladimir-Volynsky, Ovruch. This church had the smallest number of parishes in Galicia, the most in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Khmelnytsky regions. The training of clergy and clergy was carried out mainly in the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, as well as in the seminaries of Odessa, Lutsk, Mukachevo, Khmelnitsky, Chernigov and the village of Gorodok (Rivne region). The UOC-MP includes Christian shrines such as the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. The official printed organ of the church is the Orthodox Bulletin magazine. In Odessa there is the Alexandria Metochion - the official representation of the Alexandria Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate numbered 3,196 religious communities, 31 monasteries, 2,514 clergy, 2,206 religious buildings (three hundred and eighth in the process of construction), 17 educational institutions, 881 Sunday schools, issued 25 periodicals. This church enjoys the greatest influence in Galicia, Volyn, Rivne, Chernivtsi and Kyiv regions, and the three Galician regions accounted for two-thirds of the parishes of this church. Communities of the UOC-KP began to appear in Crimea and the Transcarpathian region. The church included 29 dioceses. Clergy personnel were trained at the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, as well as at the seminaries of Lvov, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Noginsk (Moscow region) and at the theological faculty of Chernivtsi University. The official publication is the journal “Orthodox Messenger”. The church is governed by the Supreme Church Council, headed by the patriarch; its hierarchs emphasize that the UOC-KP is a national church and therefore claims to have state status.

The UOC-KP is part of the autonomous metropolis of Western Europe and Canada and unites Orthodox Greeks, Italians, French, Germans and representatives of other nationalities. The autonomy is headed by the Metropolitan of Milan and all Lombardy, to whom the archbishops of Paris and Thuringia and the Vancouver bishopric are subordinate. In 1996, the Greek Orthodox Christians also joined the UOC-KP, who do not recognize the transition of the Greek Church to the Gregorian style (Old Calendarists), united in the Greek Exarchate of the UOC-KP with three dioceses.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church consisted of 1,110 registered and unregistered religious communities, 3 monasteries, 676 clergy, 789 places of worship already in operation or under construction, 7 educational institutions, 248 Sunday schools, 6 periodicals. It includes the dioceses of Kiev, Lviv, Galicia, Ternopil, Lutsk-Volyn, Khmelnitsky, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov-Poltava and Chernigov. Most parishes are located in the Lviv and Ternopil regions. There are no UAOC parishes in the Transcarpathian, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovograd, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Zaporozhye regions.

In addition to the Orthodox, there are also Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic churches in Ukraine. A difficult situation has historically developed around these churches.

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church(UGCC) was formed in Western Ukrainian lands as a result of the Union of Brest in 1596. The fact is that at the end of the 16th century. Almost all of Ukraine was part of the states that during the Middle Ages were outposts of the Vatican in eastern Europe - the Hungarian feudal state, which reigned in Transcarpathia, and the Polish kingdom, so that in the middle of the 14th century. captured Galicia and Western Podolia. The rest of the Right Bank, that is, Volyn, Kiev region, Bratslav region and part of the Left Bank, which in the 14th century. were captured by the Lithuanian state, as a result of political combinations between Polish and Lithuanian feudal lords according to the Union of Lublin in 1569. It also became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

So, across the territory of modern Ukraine there ran the border between the zones of dominance of Orthodoxy and Catholicism. It was on this border that the struggle for influence on religious communities took place. its result was the unification of the Kyiv Metropolis with the Catholic Church, proclaimed in Brest at the Council of 1596. The Union, according to the new Orthodox Church, preserved rituals and the peculiarities of the organization of the Orthodox Church, but the doctrine of Catholicism was considered dominant. The Pope was recognized as the head of the Uniate Church.

The union caused a split in the Ukrainian people along religious lines. In that part of Ukraine that was part of the Russian Empire, the Uniate Church was liquidated in 1839 (Right Bank, Volyn) and in 1875 (Kholmshchyna). In Ukraine, as part of the USSR, this church was banned in 1946, after which it continued to operate illegally until 1989, when its rights were restored.

Thus, like what was imposed through coercion, the Brest Church Union brought a lot of grief to the Ukrainian people. I. Franko wrote that she greatly weakened the Ukrainian language. .did not help the Poles either, because the persecution of Orthodoxy caused discontent among the Rusyns, which in 1648 exploded with a terrible fire in the Khmelnitsky wars and dealt the first mortal blow to the Polish state “1.

Today the process of restoration of the UGCC is unfolding. its network has been completely restored to the level of the C-40s, the period of highest development. It consists of more than 3,400 parishes served by 2,075 clergy, 90 monasteries (+1,096 monks and nuns), 6 missions, 2,654 places of worship (349 in the process of construction), 14 educational institutions, including the Lviv Theological Academy, 907 Sunday schools 26 periodicals. UGCC dioceses exist in SELA, Canada, Poland and other countries. There are also communities in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Lithuania. The vast majority of parishes (97%) operate in the western regions of Ukraine. The church (except for the Mukachevo diocese, which is directly subordinate to the Vatican) is headed by the supreme archbishop. Today this position is occupied by Cardinal Lubomir Huzar.

In general, the UGCC actively influences the national revival, the development of national consciousness and culture of the Ukrainian people. An important feature of the social activity of the UGCC is the effort to overcome outdated hostility between Greek Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Normal civilized contacts are gradually being established between them, their hierarchs participate in joint events (ceremonies and holidays), express a desire for Christian unity, and create ecumenical councils in certain areas to reconcile interfaith and interchurch misunderstandings.

Roman Catholic Church (RCC) has existed on the territory of Ukraine since the 14th century. due to the formation of the Catholic metropolis and the spread of Catholicism in the 16th century. immigrants from Poland. Therefore, the supporters of this church are mainly representatives of the Polish minority.

In 1991, Pope John Paul II resumed the activities of the Roman Catholic diocese (from the Latin - Administration) in Ukraine and appointed bishops in Lviv, Kamenets-Podolsk and Zhitomir, and in 1996 - in Lutsk. For its part, Ukraine established diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and in 1992. The Pope appointed Archbishop Antonio Franco as the first apostolic nuncio (ambassador) to Ukraine. In 2001, the Pope proclaimed Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv Marian Yavorsky a cardinal.

RCC has almost completed its development. She formed the Lviv archdiocese as its spiritual center, and other administrative and spiritual-educational structures. As of January 1, 2003, the RCC had 840 registered communities, 77 missions, 477 clergy, 269 of whom were foreigners, 771 places of worship (.64 under construction). In addition to the Lviv Archdiocese, it also includes

6 dioceses (Kievo-Zhitomir, Kamenets-Podolsk, Lutsk, Mukachevsky, Kharkov-Zaporozhye and Odessa-Simferopol). The parishes of the Transcarpathian region are united into the apostolic administration, subordinate directly to the Vatican. The process of opening Catholic theological schools continues. The College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kyiv, the higher theological school of the Holy Spirit in Gorodok in Podolia, the theological seminary in Vorzel near Kiev, the theological seminary in Bryukhovichi near Lvov (total

7 educational institutions and 504 Sunday schools). There is a publishing house of Dominican monks "Kairos", religious periodicals are published in large quantities (15 periodicals). Monasteries of Dominicans, Carmelites, Franciscans, etc. open.

The main efforts of the RCC at the present stage are aimed at reviving the church network that existed during the period of greatest influence of Catholicism in Ukraine - in the 18th-19th centuries. At the same time, Catholic communities are actively involved in the development of national statehood and the spiritual revival of the people, in overcoming interfaith hostility; it was constantly supported by all previous regimes. The RCC is finally becoming a full member of our church life. its hierarchs and other clergy take part in the work of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which are a prototype of the future unity of believers of different faiths.

However, it should be frankly stated that relations between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in Ukraine remain very contradictory. The clergy of the UOC-MP, for example, continues to believe that the Roman Patriarchate broke away from universal Orthodoxy in 1054 because of its own pride, and from then on Latinism began to be used in the fight against the guardian of Divine truth - the Holy Orthodox Church. Claims against Orthodoxy remain in the RCC. The crisis is also aggravated by gross interference in the internal church affairs of representatives of political parties and movements, as well as individual foreign centers, in this way “their canonical Ukrainian territories” are fighting.

Among the religious associations of national minorities in Ukraine are the Transcarpathian Diocese of the Reformed Church (100 parishes), the parish of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, etc. Judaism is significant, as before, in Ukraine. After the declaration of independence, favorable conditions were created in the state for the revival and development of the cultural and religious life of Jews. At the end of the 20th century. In Ukraine, there were more than 120 Jewish cultural societies, more than 70 religious communities, headed by two governing associations: religious communities of the Jewish faith of Ukraine and Jewish religious organizations of Ukraine.

Among the Protestant churches, the largest is the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Ukraine. Its communities are more or less evenly distributed in the regions, with the exception of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kherson and Crimea, where the influence of Baptist appointments. Some Baptists unite around the former Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists. Baptists in the state are headed by the senior elder of Ukraine, their regional communities are led by senior elders in the regions.

In Ukraine there are also influential Protestant churches: Pentecostal - Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, Union of Free Churches of Christians of the Evangelical Faith and Pentecostal Unions; Seventh Day Adventist Church; organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormon community. Approximately 3/5 of Pentecostal communities are located in the Transcarpathian, Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv regions; 2/5 of Adventist communities are in Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi, Transcarpathian and Khmelnytsky regions. Organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses account for almost 3% of the total number of religious associations in Ukraine, approximately half of Jehovah's Witnesses are residents of Transcarpathia; Mormon communities exist mainly in the Donetsk region and Kiev.

In recent years, separate communities of Buddhists (including their monastery in Cherkassy) and Taoists have appeared in Ukraine, mainly in cities.

An important feature of the modern religious situation in Ukraine is the spread of one of the main directions of Islam - Sunnism - on its territory. Its spiritual leaders, in their preaching ACTIVITIES, are trying to bring the principles of Islam into line with the requirements of modernity, to promote the universal aspects of Muslim thinking, and to refute the popular idea of ​​Islam as a militant religion. The socio-political orientation of Muslim communities in Ukraine is also filled with the spirit of modernity. their clergy calls on all citizens to cooperate in the struggle for peace and to actively participate in reforming the state. Muslim communities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are seeking the return of the Crimean Tatar population to the previous national-territorial borders and the restoration of their civil rights. Islam in Ukraine is a distinctive element of the motley palette of equal religions and plays its role in the spiritual life of a sovereign state.

In general, the modern religious situation in Ukraine can be more deeply and thoroughly represented by identifying seven conditional religious-territorial regions.

1. Volyn region- Volyn, Rivne and Ternopil (north) regions. The parishes of the UOC-KP and UOC-MP operate here mainly. Pentecostals predominate among Protestants. The largest centers of religious life are the Pochaev Lavra, the Assumption Zimnensky Monastery and the Koretsky Stavropegian Monastery.

2. Galician region- Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and most of the Ternopil region. The region is completely dominated by Greek Catholicism. Among the Orthodox churches, the most influential are the UAOC and the UOC-KP. The largest centers of religious life are Lviv (St. George's Cathedral, Assumption Church, Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church), Ivano-Frankivsk region (Goshev), Ternopil, Buchach, Krekhiv.

3. Transcarpathian region. It contains 8.3% of the parishes of the UOC-MP, 7.4% of the UGCC, 11.5% of the Roman Catholic Church, 50.4% of Jehovah's Witnesses communities, there are Reformed communities and followers of many other religious associations operating in Ukraine, however, there are no parishes of the UAOC. The largest centers of religious life are the cities of Uzhgorod and Mukachevo.

4. Podolia-Bukovina region- Khmelnitsky, Vinnytsia and Chernivtsi regions. Here, parishes of the UOC-MP, UOC-KP, Old Believer and Catholic (Latin Rite) communities predominate, with centers of religious life in Kamenets-Podolsky, Vinnitsa, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytsky, Belaya Krinitsa. The objects of veneration are the graves of the Belokrinitsky metropolitans, as well as the priests Alimpiy and Paul, through whose efforts the Old Believer Belokrinitsky organization was allegedly founded. Local shrines include the source of the holy prophet Elijah in the Derazhnyansky district of the Khmelnitsky region and Annino Mountain with the church of the holy righteous Anna in the Chernivtsi region.

5. Central region- Kiev, Zhytomyr, Chernigov, Sumy, Poltava and Kirovograd regions. The region is dominated by the parishes of the UOC-MP and UISH-KP. It contains the main religious shrines of the state (Kievo-Pechersk Lavra, St. Sophia Cathedral) and objects of pilgrimage (the relics of the holy fathers of the Kiev-Pechersk, the relics of the holy great martyr Barbara and the holy martyr Metropolitan of Kyiv Macarius, who was killed by the Tatars in 1497 while he was celebrating the liturgy, the tomb of the saint Grand Duchess Olga, the grave of tzaddik Rabbi Nachman in Uman, etc.)

6. Southeast region-Kharkivska, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The region is dominated by the UOC-MP, and the most important center of religious life is Kharkov.

7. Southern region- Odessa, Kherson and Nikolaev regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is dominated by the UOC-MP, but the largest number of Muslim and Jewish communities are concentrated here. It is also one of the main centers of the Old Believers, the German and Swedish Evangelical Lutheran churches. The largest religious center is Odessa, where the object of worship is the “foot” of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called in the Holy Dormition Odessa Patriarchal Monastery. In Odessa there are also Lutheran churches, synagogues, and the center of the Old Believer diocese.

Such a complex geo-religious situation in Ukraine reflects the tension of the modern religious process. This requires government authorities to constantly pay attention to him, study his interaction with the leadership of churches, sects, religious associations, and search for ways of mutual understanding between them (without interfering in their purely religious affairs).

The religious situation remains difficult not only in the country, but also in its many administrative-territorial entities. For example, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea at the end of 2003, 34 confessions and 930 religious organizations and communities were registered, including:

Muslim - more than 300;

UOC MP - 360;

UOC-KP -15;

Evangelical Christian Baptists - 20;

Jehovah's Witnesses - 17;

Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church 2;

Reformed Adventists - 1;

Seventh-day Adventists - 16;

Armenian Apostolic Church - 7;

Salvation Army - 2;

Orthodox Jews - 4;

Progressive Jews - 8;

Messianic churches - 1;

German Lutherans - 8;

Lutheran Ukrainian Autonomous Church - 6;

Methodist - 3;

Russian True Orthodox Church - 6;

Church of Svyatoslav - 1;

Krishna Consciousness -5;

Mormons - 2;

Church of Christ - 1.

According to the Office of Religious Affairs of the Odessa Regional State Administration, in 2003. There were 20 denominations and 900 registered religious organizations in the region, which owned more than 400 churches, churches, synagogues, monasteries and the like. Among them: UOC-MP - 469 organizations, Baptists - 130, UOC-KP - 59. In Odessa alone there were: synagogues - 2, Christian churches - 27 (Greek Catholic - C, UOC-MP - 5, UOC-KP - 3, Protestant 16) and 4 of their branches. In the city there are the Odessa Theological Seminary (founded on October 1, 1838, closed in 1919, restored in 1946, graduated more than 2000 clergy), the Odessa Theological Seminary (founded in 1989, duration of study from 1 to 4 years, prepares bachelors of theology, pastoral ministry , evangelism ministry, preacher ministry; Sunday school teachers, choral singing leaders) Christian Humanitarian and Economic Open University - a non-denominational higher spiritual and secular educational institution with full-time and part-time forms of education. It studies theological (training bachelors and masters of theology) and secular disciplines (economics, law, psychology, journalism).

So, religious pluralism in Ukraine, the significant activation in recent years of various pseudo-religious movements, occult schools and sects on its basis is obvious evidence of a religious crisis in society. Even the Orthodox Church, the only church in Russian history that has functioned unchanged throughout the ten centuries of its existence, is in dire need of support, protection and revival today. Based on the above, we can conclude that the spiritual authority of all religions operating in the country can be restored by strengthening them with special subjects - true believers and a healthy part of a completely depoliticized clergy.

Educational training

Questions and tasks for self-control

1. Name in chronological order the state program documents regulating religious activities.

2. In your opinion, what does freedom of conscience mean today?

3. Is it fair to say that the process of forming the 16th world Orthodox autocephaly has begun - Ukrainian? Prove your opinion.

4. What events caused the formation of two new Orthodox churches in Ukraine? What kind of church is this?

5. Is there a crisis in Orthodoxy today? Prove your opinion.

6. On what principles did the process of introducing Catholicism take place in Ukrainian lands? Give examples.

7. What explains the contradictory relations between the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches in Ukraine?

8. In your opinion, do all religious associations of national minorities in Ukraine have the same rights? Justify your opinion.

9. Is it correct to say that modern society is at the stage of a religious crisis? Prove your opinion.

a) 50; b) 70; c) 90.

P. Determine the number of communities of the Greek Catholic Church among the total number of religious communities in Ukraine (in percentage): a) 26; b) 18; c) 32.

PI. Determine the features of relations between the churches of modern Ukrainian Orthodoxy: 1) mutual understanding; 2) tough confrontation; 3) neutral relations.

IV. Determine the role of the Greek Catholic Church in the historical past of Ukraine: 1) a means of reunification of Poland, Hungary,

Ukraine; 2) a means of social, national and state enslavement of the people of Ukraine; 3) a means of reuniting Western Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine.

V. Determine the nature of the activities of the Uniate clergy during the occupation of Ukraine by the Nazi invaders: 1) the fight against the occupiers; 2) cooperation with the occupiers; 3) maintaining neutrality in relations with the occupiers.

VI. Determine the nature of the relationship between the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches in Ukraine: 1) friendly; 2) hostile; 3) neutral; 4) contradictory.

VII. Eliminate unnecessary items from the list of names of conventional religious-territorial regions: 1) Southern; 2) Southeast; 3) Black Sea; 4) Central; 5) Podolsk-Vukovinsky; 6) Transcarpathian; 7) Galitsky;

Assumption Church

The Assumption Church in the center of Tulchin is a unique relic. This building survived two world wars. There is no damage on it, there is a whole high bell tower and a beautiful figured dome. And in the 20th century, when most churches were converted for economic needs, the Assumption Church remained closed, preserving the painted interior and elegant wall decor.

The church is in the classicist style, brick, cross-shaped in plan with very short branches along the north-south axis, single-domed (the drum and top are wooden). Narrow side rooms adjoin the eastern part on both sides. The interior space is wide thanks to the high-altitude open central part.

The bell tower is located on the north side. The church was built instead of a former wooden one in the middle of the 19th century. Brick, two-tier.

The first tier is square in plan, two-storey with rectangular extensions on both sides (Staircase, gate room) and an arched passage, the upper tier is a narrow octagonal volume crowned with a helmet. The monument is distinguished by its slender pillar-like silhouette. The brick fence was built in 1872.

The history of the temple is closely connected with the history of Tulchin himself. At the end of the 18th century, the famous Count Stanislav Potocki lived in the city, who brought noticeable prosperity to the area. The Assumption Church was built at the expense of this citizen in 1789. For many years, the descendants of the count were directly related to the leadership of the church and appointed clergy according to a special principle. The most important priests and parishioners had the right to be buried in the church yard. According to archival data, there are more than 50 burials here, but only two grave crosses have survived to this day, on which they describe in detail who is buried under them.

The temple is considered one of the main shrines of modern Tulchin. Regular restorations are carried out here and the beauty around the building is maintained. The Assumption Church has the honorary title of an architectural monument, built more than 200 years ago and retaining its original appearance.

Tulchin

Dominican Church

Built around 1780. The structure was rebuilt in 1874.

The church in the style of early classicism is a brick, three-nave, eight-pillar with a semi-circular apse, a single-domed basilica with a transept.

The interior is made in the full Corinthian order. The main vault and arches are coffered (with rosettes). The modeling is distinguished by a high professional level of execution.

Tulchin

Potocki Church

The main attraction of Pechera is the church-mausoleum of the Potocki family. It was erected by order of Konstantin and Yanina Pototsky by the famous architect V.V. Gorodetsky in 1904.

For the construction of the church, Gorodetsky used various natural and artificial materials: granite, sandstone, concrete, oak, and the like. Moldings and decorative stone for cladding are made of cement. The floor of the crypt and the church are covered with Metlakh tiles produced by the Kharkov factory E.E. Bergenheim, the windows were filled with glass blocks from the Falconier company. The doors are made of a more traditional material - they are oak. Above the gate you can see the Potocki coat of arms.

The family crypt is located under the apse of the temple; most of the niches were never used, but some burials, which are covered with marble tombstones, were carried out. The ashes of the founder himself, Count Konstantin Pototsky, were transported by descendants to Poland.

In Soviet times, a club was set up here, and now the church is operating again.

With. Pechera

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

It is located on the site of a castle built here in the period 1682–1685. In 1838, brick vestibules, accented by four-column wooden porticoes with triangular pediments, were added to the church from the west, and in 1869 to the central frame from the south.

Wooden, three-frame, three-headed. All log houses are octagonal in plan with a significant inward slope of the walls, covered with hipped domes on octagons with one crease, and crowned with decorative domes. In the interior, the effect of the high-rise opening of the internal space is illusoryly enhanced due to the sharp crease, very narrow side edges of the octagon and the inward slope of the walls. Babinets is connected to the central volume by a two-tier arch-cutout. The top is decorated with alfrey paintings from the 19th century.

Due to the arrangement of masses with a predominance of vertical divisions, a strict silhouette, and perfect proportions, the monument belongs to the characteristic works of the Podolsk school of folk wooden architecture.

In the ensemble with the church, a brick, two-tier, octagonal bell tower was built, which has no completion.