UPDATE FROM UKRAINE

By
Orthodox Church
And guess what. It's not about President Trump and impeachment! People in Ukraine aren't concerned with the phone call between Trump and their president.


They are more concerned about running water in their cities (Here in Odessa, the entire city was without water for 24 hours the day after we arrived.) They are more concerned about electricity for their homes. (The power was off for 18 hours on a different day.)


We've been sitting in Odessa, Ukraine for the past week and a half while my husband was doing a seminar here. I took the opportunity to visit several churches of the city and will share what I saw with you.


Ukranian Orthodox Cathedral
The main religion here is the Ukranian Orthodox Church which is similar to Russian. We stopped in the cathedral in the city. It was very beautiful on the inside. The arched ceilings were decorated with pictures and gold ornamentation.




Domed ceilings and golden chandeliers lined both sides of the main altar. It's a very impressive structure. However, as always with orthodox cathedrals, the building struck me as empty. Few people were worshipping, leaving the entire building virtually deserted.




Iconostasis in Orthodox Cathedral
Orthodox churches do have one thing that is unique. The iconostasis separates the people from the altar area. The wall of icons and paintings adorning the front of the church was very awe-inspiring.

Catholic Church




We also visited a Catholic cathedral in the city. Immediately upon entry we could see that it wasn't as majestic as the Orthodox Church, but it felt welcoming. Maybe the addition of the pews made me feel more at home. I felt that the simpler side altars told the story of the Bible more than their golden-domed counterpart.


Catholic Church with pews
Image of Jesus' baptism on side altar

Finally, I will show you the Lutheran church where my husband was working. St. Paul's Lutheran Cathedral was founded by a large German community in 1825. 

St. Paul's Lutheran Church
Restructured chancel
During the Soviet occupation, the building was used as a youth hall. The Soviets located bathrooms in the area where the altar was located. Because of bad plumbing, this entire area of the church had to be abandoned after restoration. 

As a result, the front of the church had to be restructured into a much shallower altar area. The symbolism on the wall of the chancel is the blood of Christ in a chalice, a wafer, and the water of baptism flowing out of these. The artist's modern artistic symbolism is very much Lutheran. 

It makes for a simple declaration of the truth of God's Word without all the gold found in other cathedrals. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Home Sweet Home" - Not American Version

By
Image
Older apartment buildings We've lived in St. Petersburg for close to two months and have yet to see "the American dream" - a single family house. Here, everyone lives in an apartment, located either in an old building in the historic city center or in a new high-rise farther out. The high-rise buildings are everywhere you look--in the center of everything, or at the edge of one of the many rivers. We keep hearing about the communist era cement buildings, but we haven't seen many that look too old and dilapidated. They are probably replaced by the new high-rises built since freedom came in the 1990s. We live in one of these new high-rise complexes. Our third-floor apartment is in a 21 story building in a complex of five other buildings (called korpus in Russia). We live in Korpus 3. This complex includes several modern, colorful play areas for the children. It also includes an underground parking garage for the many cars that people own. In fact, the pl
Read more

The Golden Domes of Riga

By
Image
Orthodox Cathedral - Riga  The golden domes of the Nativity of Christ Cathedral stand out above the trees near Old Town Riga. We walk past this large building in the park not far from our apartment.  The domes shine out to the citizens on sunny days. Surrounded by the trees in the park, the walls of the cathedral are not easy to see in summer, but the size is undeniable. Of course, the golden domes tell everyone that this is a Russian Orthodox Church. After living in St. Petersburg, that is easy for us to define with the Russian style architecture. This cathedral was built between 1876 and 1883 when Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire under the reign of Tsar Alexander II.  Main Door This is the largest Orthodox Church in the entire Baltic area. A massive tower rises toward the sky when a visitor approaches the front door.  Entryway painting I visited several orthodox churches during my years in Europe. The thing that they have in common is that the interiors are covered with images
Read more

Why Roosters?

By
Image
Rooster on top of Dom Cathedral  Last week I wrote about cats being on the roof of a building, but today I'm going to share the reason that we have roosters sitting on the tip of churches in Riga. When we first moved to Riga, we noticed that some churches have the usual crosses on the top of them, but others have roosters sitting on top of the steeple. I couldn't recall ever seeing a rooster on top of a steeple. On doing more research, I was wrong to think that other countries don't have these on steeples. I found out that's it's common in European countries to see roosters on top of Lutheran churches. Our Lady of Sorrows Church The more common cross on the top of a steeple is found on Catholic churches in Europe. We have a couple of them in Old Town Riga as well. And, some Catholic churches in Europe have roosters sitting on top of crosses. So, the question popping into my head is why a rooster? After looking at several sources, it seems like ther
Read more