Godly Sunday
Hello all! I took a break on Saturday, and there was nothing going on in the way of press conferences today, so little newslike to report. Instead, two bits of interest just to hold y'all over until Monday. The pictures from all of this will be available then, too.
Yanukovych supporters at last
I saw some Yanukovych supporters today! I looked for them on Friday with Disco, (wrote about that in stories) but had no luck. Today we took Lesya's sister (who's living in Kharkiv) to the Pechersk Lavra. (wrote about this place, too, in my Travel Ukraine - Kyiv article)
The Lavra is composed of a Monastery and Crypt and is part of the Russian Patriarchy. The Patriarchy, in turn, sometimes seems to act like the religious wing of the Russian Imperial Project. They told my neighbor, a nice old grandma with about 1/3 of her teeth left, that the Anti-Christ is about to rise up in America, to be announced with earthquakes and plagues and whatnot. (She asked me, Isn't it true? I answered: Well, the 80% of Americans who are believers might be surprised by that." But later I thought, actually, maybe half of those believers would not be at all surprised. Anyway...)
Since the church has Russian sympathies, a number of Yanukovych marches have started or ended there, and Lesya remembers hearing that the Lavra was providing places to stay for his supporters.
Well, we looked all over the place, but didn't find any. We did, however, find a lot of Yushchenko supporters, including a whole chorus of orange-wearing senior citizens signing in a plaza. After a full day there we took the bus back, and, wouldn't you know it, we pulled away and one stop later we passed a little Yanukovych parade.
The group was composed of a small cluster of grandmas and grandpas, perhaps 20-25 in all, around what looked like a priest. They were all carrying icons of the kind priests bring out during Christmas. We had only a moment to look at them before our bus moved on. By the time it got the the next stop, we'd already gone a ten minute drive in the wrong direction and none of us was up for running.
Maybe I'll go try to hunt for them tomorrow.
The Chestnut Revolution goes on
Lesya and her sister and I also went back to Independence Square again today, just to contribute a little before her sister took the train home. I am happy to report that the Orange Revolution is still going strong. The numbers in the Square were thinner than last time, but it still looked like New Years. There were many thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of folks there.
Tent City looks more developed than last time, too. They have improvised a fence out of slats and crates and bits of this and that, and set it up around about two thirds of the camp. The rest of the camp seems absolutely covered in propaganda, the sheer variety and creativity of it impressed me. They had lampooning pictures, variations on Yanukovych campaign material, variations on every cultural idea imaginable, and big thick boots called "valenky", and oranges, lots of oranges. The boots and oranges are a reference to Mrs. Yanukovych's incoherent mess of a speech in Donetsk (I mentioned it a couple days ago) in which she accused America of supplying Ukraine with these heavy Russian boots and poisoning oranges because they're orange.
It doesn't make any sense, I know, but that's pretty much what she said, as far as anyone can figure out. Now Tent City has a pair of "pro-American" valenky about every 5 meters.
Tent City seems more organized than last time. Many of the smaller camping tents are now enclosed under bigger arching military tents. As I've mentioned before, they've put up an improvised fence. Some of our friends and relatives here in Kyiv are in Universities, and according to them, different student faculties are sleeping in tents in shifts. Lesya's cousin said when she stayed there the faculty teachers brought them food and hot tea and the dean gave them food money.
What these things indicate to me is that Tent City has settled down into a sustainable, non-frentic solidity. I get the feeling that they'll be able to hold out at this strength for a while. They'll easily make it until the 26th.
Today's big guests on Maidan were representatives from all the major religions in Kyiv, all speaking out against falsification. We didn't get to see everyone, but we think that included Muslims.
The Ukrainian Orthodox priest lead off, and delivered a beautiful speech. He ended with perhaps the most believed words among the person's gathered there, words that could at least unite all the Christian believers - the Lord's prayer. I tried to get it on my camera in video mode, but it cut out right before he started, and I fumbled all my memory cards, dropped them on the ground and stepped on them and started swearing in the middle of one of the most beautiful moments of the Revolution. Sigh.
When the priest ended the Lord's Prayer, he did not say Amen. He did this as yet another gesture of Christian brotherhood, because he was followed by the Catholic priest and then other Christian religious figures, and he did not want to end the prayer before they'd gotten a chance to speak.
It was heartening. Not only that, it was the name of the Lord spoken to a few hundred thousand protesters in the middle of Kyiv. Wonderful.
Dan McMinn
7 Comments
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (7)
Most obvious are those on the wrong side who live a life of crime. Not so obvious are those who live a life of crime while hiding behind religiosity - doing what they can to undermine the legitimate church. Hence we see deceived members of the legitimate church supporting movements and individuals that are actual enemies of Christ.
Your nice old neighbor is likely a prime example of a legitimate church member fallen prey to deceivers on the wrong side. (You're right, Dan - this American would not be the least bit surprised to see the Anti-Christ revealed in the not distant future, in America, most likely under the auspices of the UN.)
(Note again, the 'divide' includes the split between denominational churches that support proven criminals, and those who would never dream of doing so.)
One hundred years ago Christians far outnumbered non-Christians in what we call "the west." The divide has narrowed markedly in Europe, almost matching Asia and an overtly anti-Christian Russia - exemplified in that what remains of the Russian church mired in Marxist-socialist support. Remarkably similar is the Ukrainian ?Baptist' church supporting Yanukovych - along with some other Catholic denominations.
Members of the legitimate church would never support people like Yanukovych, Kuchma or Putin. For that reason, I believe that what we are seeing in Kiev - those standing in opposition to this evil triumvirate, are indeed members of the true church - that body of believers who exemplify the attributes of the Lord of Lords.
On a spiritual level: Many people in Russia support Putin because the alternative appears to them to be a descent into chaos and anarchy. They may be right. God doesn't give us perfect leaders to match up against sinful ones, we are called to give to whatever temporal leader we've got what they are owed, even if it as corrupt as a Roman Ceasar!, and give to God our lives.
Darn, I really don't want to get too far away from current Ukrainian history here, so I'm going to try to bridge back.
In Ukrianian history, a lot of the people who stood by Godly principles are dead. Imagine a country in which none of the famous US figures from the Revolutionary War period survived except Benedict Arnold, and you'll have an idea. Perhaps the righteous and Godly thing for Ukrainians was to stand on principles and be executed at a number of times throughout history, but I sure wouldn't have the faith to do it, and few of the people in the legitimate church that I know would, either.
Ukraine and Russia are not anti-Christian countries in anything like the same meaning as, say, Iran. They have a Russian Patriarchy church that is desperately and wickedly tied to state interests, they have many others which are not. Divided from foreign state interests, such as the Ukrainian Patriarchy is to a much greater extent, Orthodox believers are actually closer in their views to Reformed Protestant believers than Catholics.
Furthermore, their government is not as accountable as Western governments, so to the extent that any of the governments here are carrying out crusades against Christians, those reflect the actual mood of people here much less than would be required to do so in the US.
I'm going to stay out of the debate about the end-times, so I can stay on topics where I can add more value - Ukrainian current events.
What I wonder is, do either encourage reading of the Bible at home? (A practice that some Catholics here in the US actually frown on.)
My sister, who became Catholic, gave me back a Bible I had given her as a gift prior to her joining the local Catholic church - saying she was told it was not healthy for her to read it, since she didn't have the understanding needed. That is pre-protestant thinking - to say the least. That such thinking exists today was an eye-opener - and an insult, from my perspective.
Thanks for the edits, taking care of the question-mark thing... BTW, I do use notepad to pre-check posts for pure ascii content... 8^)
To bring this back to Ukraine...any time when big, disorderly world events are occurring, there are plenty of signs. But then, there really aren't any times when there aren't floods, wars, earthquakes, and general disorder _somewhere_. Sooo no sign will be any more helpful of an indication than "like a thief in the night". Whenever the end of the world happens, it will be a surprise pop quiz.
And some people think God has no sense of humor. ;)
What I'm focussed on is actions having to do with the Orange Revolution, and I started talking about religion here specifically as it is related to this protest movement. Perhaps later, (when I've done quite a bit more research) I could tell you more about the religious practices of Orthodoxy. But for now, I'm truncating this conversation stream! I hope that's fair.
ICQ: 207729550, you have my e-mail.
You know, in spite of Yushchenko warning them to remain sober, a great deal are drunk. And arguing with drunk "revolutionaries" -- well, it's REALLY unpleasant, I have tried it more than once, believe me. Cars with Donetsk number place are occasionally knocked -- front glasses, lights are broken while the owners are away. Though -- thanks God, - no blood was shed, but the crowd is still aggressive, and even when it does not come to violence -- ah, you should hear it yourself what angry "revolutionaries" can say to a man or woman with a blue ribbon...
So -- we are not really passive, we just do not want our dignity to suffer -- practically for nothing, because street discussions seldom have any good outcome, people do not exchange their opinions in such discussions, they just shout at each other :(
So, there you are. I do wish to have a chat with you -- and you will see that we are no monsters, we are people, and we are citizens, and we have much to say in support of our choice.
Hoping to see (or read) you soon -- Alex.