PART OF THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT TO RECLAIM SACRED SITES Emailing: sns-ap-ukraine-protesting-monks,0,3668169.htm

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--- Bhakti Ananda Goswami <bhakti.eohn

wrote:

> "Bhakti Ananda Goswami"

> <bhakti.eohn

> "Vrin Parker" <vrnparker

> PART OF THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT TO RECLAIM

> SACRED SITES Emailing:

> sns-ap-ukraine-protesting-monks,0,3668169.htm

> Sat, 26 Apr 2003 05:41:04 -0700

>

> Newsday.com - Ukrainian Monks Seize Part of

> Monastery

>

ITS NOT JUST THE HINDUS IN AYODHYA, BUT EVEN CHRISTIANS IN UKRAINE

WANT TO RECLAIM THEIR HOLY SITES.

By ANNA MELNICHUK

> Associated Press Writer

>

> April 26, 2003, 1:57 AM EDT

>

>

> KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Orthodox monks are

> resorting to sit-ins to regain church property

> seized by the Soviet government and still occupied

> by secular organizations.

>

> For the past week, about a dozen monks have

> occupied the State Archaeological Institute's

> archives, housed in the gold-crested, onion-domed

> Monastery of the Caves, demanding the government

> return the building to the church. The holed-up

> monks refuse to allow entry to outsiders.

>

> It was the second-such occupation in a month.

>

> On Friday, a thin bearded face appeared in the

> open window of the dilapidated building at the

> monastery, but the monk refused to speak to a

> reporter.

>

> "They won't give up until they receive what's

> theirs," said a young novice who refused to give his

> name. He was bringing the group food, climbing in

> and out of a second-floor window reached by a

> ladder.

>

> Ukrainian media quoted Metropolitan Volodymyr,

> leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to which the

> monastery belongs, as saying the institute had

> "desecrated" the premises. Volodymyr denied the

> monks were breaking the law, saying they were simply

> reclaiming their property.

>

> The nearly 1,000-year-old Caves Monastery -- a

> UNESCO world heritage site -- spreads over two large

> hills in central Kiev overlooking the mighty Dnieper

> River. Miles of underground tunnels containing

> crypts and ecclesiastical objects attract thousands

> of visitors each year.

>

> Originally, the dilapidated building the monks

> occupy was a church and inn for pilgrims.

>

> In the 1920s, Soviet authorities declared the

> monastery a state reserve and drove out all the

> monks.

>

> A special commission returned part of the

> monastery in 1988 on the 1,000th anniversary of the

> baptism of Kievan Rus -- the first Slavic state. The

> church gained more of it after the 1991 Soviet

> collapse.

>

> Last year, President Leonid Kuchma ordered all

> religious property confiscated by the Soviet Union

> returned, but the order has not been implemented. In

> August, top officials promised to return the

> monastery to the church within three months.

>

> The monks seized the space after hearing

> rumors the government planned to lease it to new

> tenants, said Yuriy Bilan, a historian at a museum

> on the monastery grounds.

>

> Valentina Kulakova, deputy director of the

> Kiev-Pechersk Historic Archaeological Reserve, which

> runs the archive in the disputed building, said the

> monks had a valid claim but questioned their

> methods.

>

> "We understand perfectly that we must return

> religious buildings to the monastery, but it should

> be done in a civilized way, backed by orders from

> the authorities," she said.

>

> The Caves sit-in is not the first time this

> year that Orthodox believers have taken the law into

> their own hands.

>

> Last month, about 60 monks and laypeople from

> the nearby Holy Candlemas Monastery forced their way

> into a building housing two Western democracy

> foundations that have rented space in the monastery

> from the government for the past 10 years.

>

> The group arrived in the early morning, pinned

> a guard to the wall and looked around for keys to

> open the offices, but found none, said Markian

> Bilynskyi, who heads one of the foundations, the

> Pylyp Orlyka Institute. The crowd blocked the

> offices and refused to let police in. Four days

> later, police finally persuaded the protesters to

> leave, and then sealed the offices pending a court

> decision, Bilynskyi said.

>

> He insisted that although property should be

> returned, leases must be respected. However, the

> government hesitates to enforce the law against the

> monks.

>

> "They're reluctant to do anything because it

> involves the church," Bilynskyi said.

> 2003, The Associated Press

>

>

>

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