www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Wooden Churches

A wonderful site:

http://sites.netscape.net/apiorko/wchurches/wchurch.htm

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: Edwin ]

Dear Edwin,

The wooden Orthodox Churches of Volyn and elsewhere in Western Ukraine suffered a terrible fate years ago.

Hooligans would burn them and government authorities would refuse to allow them to be insured so that they wouldn't be rebuilt.

Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky went on record to protest against this to the Polish government, twice.

Alex

Alex,

Yes. I know.

It is a church in ruins

http://www.lemko.org/lih/churchir/chirmain.html#clickable%20map

As stated by the author of the book 'Church in Ruins' the following stats are ...


Today's count indicates that out of the 689 tserkvy that existed in 1939;
* 346 tserkvy (50.2%)no longer exist, or are in an irreparable condition;
* 245 tserkvy (35.6%) have been acquired by the Polish Roman Catholic Church and converted into kostely;
* 61 tserkvy (6.9%) remain in reasonably good condition, but are closed or used for other than sacral needs;
* 28 tserkvy (4.0%) were acquired and are used by the Orthodox Church;
* 9 tserkvy (1.3%) are retained as museums. Some remain standing on their original locations, while others have been moved onto museum property.

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: Edwin ]

Dear Edwin,

You will forgive me if I relate this story.

In the time of Hetman Ivan Mazeppa when he formed an alliance with King Charles XII of Sweden to fight Peter the Great, Charles' Lutheran troops came to the town of Kaplunivka.

They saw a wooden Orthodox Church and tried to burn it.

But it wouldn't burn.

Charles turned to the Hetman and asked him why such a miracle would occur?

The Hetman replied that there had been in the Church a miraculous Kazan-style icon of Kaplunivka.

Charles asked him where it was now and was told it was with Peter the First.

Charles was then said to have remarked, "As we cannot burn down a church in which the icon used to be kept, what hope have we to conquer Peter who now has the icon with himself and his armies?"

The day before the fateful battle, a Russian soldier took a long shot at Charles, and the bullet went through the heel of his right foot, through the middle of his toes and lodged in his boot.

Infection set in and Charles was unable to lead his armies the next day. His generals refused to coordinate their efforts and Peter defeated them.

Alex

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI BOHU!

I would like to share the website for a wooden Ukrainian church in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

http://users.erols.com/klnorman/HTUCC/htucc.html

I've been told that the church was designed by a member of the parish who emmigrated after WWII. His family's occupation in Ukraine was wood-working, specifically repairing wooden churches.

Although the inside is not yet completed, this is a very active community with Divine Services being celebrated in the church hall.

the least servant of the servants of God....

mark

Dear Mark,

Thank you for that!

There really is nothing like a good old fashioned wooden Church to bring out the Carpathian in all of us!

Alex

Mark,

A real beauty.

SAINT ELIAS CHURCH (wooden)

www.saintelias.com [saintelias.com]

a great church indeed.

ilya