What was Cherkasy Cathedral seized for? Concerts?
On 25 December 2024, on the day of celebrating Christmas according to the New Style calendar, the OCU organized a paid concert at the occupied St Michael’s Cathedral of Cherkasy.
Not long ago, this church, where the relics of the Holy Martyr Macarius of Ovruch rest, echoed with prayer, and the number of worshippers was so great that there was hardly room to stand. Now, Ukraine's largest cathedral is almost empty, and attracting people requires spectacles.
Let us recall the slogans under which both the Cherkasy Cathedral and many other churches were seized from the UOC and transferred to the OCU. We were told that these holy sites would finally be freed from “Moscow captivity” and returned to the “true” Ukrainian faithful. That prayers in the "proper" Ukrainian language would replace those in "Russian" Church Slavonic.
There is another important aspect to this situation. When government officials turned the Refectory Church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra into a venue for a culinary show, followed by folk songs and dancing, even some members of the OCU admitted it was too much and said so publicly. But back then, they blamed the authorities, who legally own the Lavra.э
However, the Cherkasy Cathedral is a different story. Officials have no ties to this church. It was not "returned to the state" – this was outright raiding: taken from the UOC and handed over to the OCU. Control now lies not with the authorities but with Epifaniy Dumenko’s associates. Yet what’s happening there is no different from what’s occurring in the "state-owned" Lavra or other "returned" shrines.
And as one watches this unfold, a single question lingers: What was it all for? Is this why you staged a smash-up in the Cherkasy Cathedral? Is this why you shot at parishioners, beat the metropolitan, and once again "glorified" Ukraine worldwide?
Even Filaret, with all his eccentricities, never thought of hosting concerts in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral. Perhaps he was stopped by the thought of the relics of the Great Martyr Barbara. The new "owners" of the Cherkasy Cathedral, however, seem not restrained by anything.
