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Photos| To divinity and beyond: Believers mull future of Ukraine space church

A wooden church in central Ukraine is one of thousands of buildings that were repurposed or simply destroyed during an anti-religion campaign in the Soviet era. Last month the country created its own Orthodox Church in a historic break with the Russian Orthodox Church, against a backdrop of its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. Now some believers are asking whether it's time for the century old structure to be returned to the Church, especially as Ukraine is undergoing a religious revival.

Updated on: Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM IST

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A guide waits for visitors outside the space museum located in Saint Paraskeva church in Pereyaslav-Khemlnytsky, a small town some 80 kilometers southeast of Kiev. Inside this traditional Orthodox church topped with a gold cross, instead of icons, visitors can see a lunar rover and the helmet of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

A guide waits for visitors outside the space museum located in Saint Paraskeva church in Pereyaslav-Khemlnytsky, a small town some 80 kilometers southeast of Kiev. Inside this traditional Orthodox church topped with a gold cross, instead of icons, visitors can see a lunar rover and the helmet of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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A guide waits for visitors at the Saint Paraskeva church. “Today, when it is no longer forbidden to pray and believe in God, the church must be used as a place of worship,” said priest Mykhaylo Yurchenko, from the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church who serves in one of the nearby churches. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

A guide waits for visitors at the Saint Paraskeva church. “Today, when it is no longer forbidden to pray and believe in God, the church must be used as a place of worship,” said priest Mykhaylo Yurchenko, from the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church who serves in one of the nearby churches. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Built in 1891, the Church of Saint Paraskeva houses over 450 exhibits, including a scarlet training parachute belonging to Gagarin, a collection of portraits of him and other personal items of the cosmonaut whose historic 1961 space flight made him a Soviet icon. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Built in 1891, the Church of Saint Paraskeva houses over 450 exhibits, including a scarlet training parachute belonging to Gagarin, a collection of portraits of him and other personal items of the cosmonaut whose historic 1961 space flight made him a Soviet icon. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Museum staff say clerics have even tried out the acoustics, but there are no plans of reconsecration. “The museum was founded in the 1970s,” said Sergiy Volkodav, its chief curator. “It happened when space flights were wildly popular and every boy dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut,” he said, standing beside a spacesuit worn by cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov for a spacewalk in 1976. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Museum staff say clerics have even tried out the acoustics, but there are no plans of reconsecration. “The museum was founded in the 1970s,” said Sergiy Volkodav, its chief curator. “It happened when space flights were wildly popular and every boy dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut,” he said, standing beside a spacesuit worn by cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov for a spacewalk in 1976. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Soviet anti-religious propaganda used images of space exploration to persuade people that God did not exist. The Soviets also put some former churches to ideological use such as opening a museum of atheism in a cathedral in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. Some other churches were converted into planetariums. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Soviet anti-religious propaganda used images of space exploration to persuade people that God did not exist. The Soviets also put some former churches to ideological use such as opening a museum of atheism in a cathedral in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. Some other churches were converted into planetariums. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Volkodav said that in opening a space museum in a church, the Soviet authorities’ intention was not necessarily to mock religion. They simply chose a building that could display large exhibits that include a model rocket several metres high. Some, like Volkodav as well as priests and other locals, argue that the creation of the museum in fact saved the church from destruction. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Volkodav said that in opening a space museum in a church, the Soviet authorities’ intention was not necessarily to mock religion. They simply chose a building that could display large exhibits that include a model rocket several metres high. Some, like Volkodav as well as priests and other locals, argue that the creation of the museum in fact saved the church from destruction. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Formerly in a Cossack village that was flooded to build a reservoir in the 1960s, the church was painstakingly relocated. Borys Stolyarenko, a 60-year-old mechanic, recalls services held there. “Later, when the Soviets turned it into a granary, we climbed through its windows with my friends and jumped down into the grain,” he said. “All I have is this church. The creation of the museum saved it,” he added. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Formerly in a Cossack village that was flooded to build a reservoir in the 1960s, the church was painstakingly relocated. Borys Stolyarenko, a 60-year-old mechanic, recalls services held there. “Later, when the Soviets turned it into a granary, we climbed through its windows with my friends and jumped down into the grain,” he said. “All I have is this church. The creation of the museum saved it,” he added. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Today the museum looks like it has seen better days. The exhibits are shabby and blue paint is flaking off the interior walls. Most visitors come in summer due to the lack of heating: a thermometer inside displays minus 10 degrees C. “It’s as cold as in space,” joked a museum employee, wearing a sheepskin coat and hat. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Today the museum looks like it has seen better days. The exhibits are shabby and blue paint is flaking off the interior walls. Most visitors come in summer due to the lack of heating: a thermometer inside displays minus 10 degrees C. “It’s as cold as in space,” joked a museum employee, wearing a sheepskin coat and hat. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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Father Feodosiy from the local Orthodox monastery, loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, said he would like the museum returned to the Russian Orthodox Church rather than go to the “schismatic” Ukrainian Church. Some locals have suggested opening a museum of religious icons here. But Volkodav is resolutely opposed. “This is the only space museum in a church in the whole world... it’s unique,” he claimed. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

Updated on Feb 09, 2019 12:39 PM

Father Feodosiy from the local Orthodox monastery, loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, said he would like the museum returned to the Russian Orthodox Church rather than go to the “schismatic” Ukrainian Church. Some locals have suggested opening a museum of religious icons here. But Volkodav is resolutely opposed. “This is the only space museum in a church in the whole world... it’s unique,” he claimed. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP)

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