National Culture, Nationalism and the Eastern Churches: Defending People's Rites

In a recent communication, someone asked why the Ukrainian Church is so nationalistic.  Why is there so much emphasis on Ukrainian this and Ukrainian that?  Is the Ukrainian Church only for Ukrainians?  What is the background to all this?  Well, since you asked . . .

Every Christian Church expresses its public worship through its own Rite or spiritual culture by means of which it interprets and understands Christian tradition.  Even those Churches who say they are without a liturgical tradition have a Rite of their own!

This spiritual culture is really an amalgam of religious symbols that represent what we believe through our public worship and celebration of our faith together with elements of the wider culture and society of which we are a part.

And so, already in the New Testament, there were Christians of two Rites.  One Rite was that of Jerusalem, the Judaic Rite that was celebrated by the Apostles in the first instance who were, in fact, Jews.

The Apostles attended the readings and prayers in the Temple and then retired elsewhere for a celebration of the Lord's Passover or Paschal Meal which is the Eucharist.

St. James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, was so observant a Jew in this regard that the Pharisees thought he WAS a Jew and initially had no inkling that he was the leader of the Jerusalem Church of the followers of the Way.

This was why he was placed on a high ledge of the Temple and asked to argue against belief in Christ.  To the surprise of the Pharisees, James did the opposite and was pushed off where he met a martyr's death.

Then St Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, began bringing in converts from the Hellenic pagan world.  He himself argued against the need to follow the Jewish Rites in order to become a Christian.  Hellenic traditions were also to come and so a second Rite was born which was akin to the Byzantine world-view of the Eastern Churches today!

As Christianity spread throughout the major urban centres of the then civilized world, so too did the liturgical Rites proliferate.  Other nations who received Christianity also accepted those Rites and married them to their own national cultures and traditions.

And so the Kyivan tradition of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha infused Byzantine Christianity with the culture of their royal dominions to give birth to its own Rite embodied in the Church of St Andrew, the Church of Kyivan Rus'-Ukraine.

That process of "inculturation" began with bringing religion to the people.  The liturgical language was understandable to them.  The services of blessings found in the Trebnyk or Book of Needs was expanded by two volumes to include blessings of objects relevant to the people (e.g. farm animals, bees etc.).

The national culture of the people was fused with the beauty of Byzantine theology and spirituality to create a unique Byzantino-Slavic synthesis.

The people could see their own soul in the life of their Church.  Their Church radiated their values, their traditions and way of life, all the while pointing to Christ who was always among them, hidden, but, through Baptism, had now come to be publicly acknowledged as their Lord, God and Saviour!

And the Church would do more than this.

Over the centuries, the Church would share good times and bad with the people it served.

Priests and Bishops became the chief defenders of the people, especially since there was no one else who would defend them.

In times of oppression, the Church would provide a life-line to the people by continuing to maintain their traditions and, with them, their identity, from extinction.

In the absence of any other secular institutions which could embody the ideals and spirit of the people, the Church assumed all these roles and responsibilities and so became the people's "all."

As one person has put it, "The liturgy of the Eastern Church is really the fullest possible expression of the entire cultural system and values of their constituent peoples."

This is why, should all other, for example, Ukrainian associations in Canada and the U.S. end in oblivion, the Church would still continue to be the bastion of Ukrainian culture and spirituality as it always has.

A good example is the Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary of St Andrew's College in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A traditional seminary, it is an exacting copy of the Kyivan Mohyla Institute as established by the great Father of the Church, St Peter Mohyla.

Even the cassocks the students wear remind one of former glory days long ago.

The students learn a broad range of theological and philosophical subjects.  Not all who study there become priests and bishops.  Lay leadership is emphasized and this is where one breaks one's teeth, so to speak, in being educated for this role.

In addition to the spiritual subjects, a complete range of courses in Ukrainian studies is offered to enable the future religious leaders of the Church to become more conversant with the spirituality of the people they will serve.

And many students come to St. Andrew's who are not in the least bit interested in following a spiritual vocation, but who simply come for the benefit of its Slavic studies programme.

Culture is the medium through which spirituality is communicated.  Without it, the message would simply fall on deaf ears.

This is also why other denominations have tried to follow suit and fuse their religious systems with Ukrainian culture to varying degrees of success.

The Ukrainian Lutheran Church has adopted much of the Byzantine patrimony of Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholics.  It has even fused the Lutheran Communion Service with the liturgy of St John Chrysostom!  The two really don't have much in common and their unfortunate fusion leaves, unfortunately, a bad liturgical taste in one's mouth.  In a word - "yuck."

The Presbyterian Church of Canada once tried some "outreach" to Ukrainians by adopting its own "Byzantine Rite" complete with an iconostasis without icons owing to its own iconoclastic stance.  "Yuck" again!

Then there was the Ukrainian translation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer - please refer to the above . . .

Byzantine and Ukrainian spiritualities came together so nicely because they shared so much that was organically related to one another.  The Kyivan Church represents a synthesis of this coherent whole. 

The Kyivan tradition spread westwards, as well as eastwards, all the way to China, Alaska and California!  No wonder St Peter Mohyla, a Moldavian aristocrat by birth, called the Kyivan Church the "Mother of the East!"

We who are privileged to be of the Kyivan Orthodox Catholic tradition are heirs to a luminous patrimony.  It is not a "nationalistic" one, but a truly "national" one.

The Church of Kyiv is the Church of the Ukrainian people which has earned its right of citizenship in their lives through its work with them, through its sharing of their glory and their sufferings, much like the Mother of Christ sorrowfully holding on Her lap Her crucified Son . . .

The Ukrainian language and other integral aspects of Ukrainian culture is jealously preserved by our Church because they mediate the undying Ukrainian Christian spirit.  As Metropolitan Ohienko wrote, since historic foes have tried to destroy the Ukrainian language and culture, these have taken on a "martyric" and sacred character for us!

The Kyivan patrimony has produced many fruits of the Spirit in terms of Miraculous Icons and Saints together with the evangelical fruits of other Christianized nations and cultures who were taught about Christ by the Church of Kyiv, much like the woman at the well was taught by Christ.

As the woman, St Svitlana/Photini told her people about Christ, so the Church of Kyiv witnessed Christ to many others.

And like them, so too did those peoples baptized by their Mother, Kyiv, come to believe in Christ, not only because Kyiv told them about Him, but because they too came to know him and acknowledge Him to truly be the Saviour of the world!

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org