Dancing before the Altar: What Really Happened in the Trinity Cathedral of Chernihiv

Each of us chooses our own path, and each will answer for their choice....😢

about the recent performance in the Trinity Cathedral of Chernihiv, taken from the believers.
It should be noted that representatives of one of the denominations, judging by the photos, were quite satisfied with this sacrilege.

"Are dances in the church a return to Ukrainian spiritual traditions?

In the ancient Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv, which was built with the funds of Hetman Ivan Mazepa as the main church of the ancient Trinity-Ilyinsky Monastery, a festive concert was organized by the Chernihiv Museum-Reserve on December 27, 2025, on the occasion of the Nativity of Christ.

At first glance, everything seems fine, Christmas carols and spiritual chants performed by drama theater artists and singers of local ensembles... They say they played quite well...

But, one but... When in front of the Altar of the shrine, the artists not only sing but also start dancing, it is definitely crossing the permissible boundary in a sacred place. This is definitely unacceptable in a church where the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist is performed, especially in front of the Altar - the holiest place of prayer and bloodless sacrifice.

Some will say that this is supposedly "de-Moscovization" and "revival of national traditions." It seems that under the guise of fighting "Moscow influences," they are trying to break our purely Ukrainian centuries-old pious traditions. After all, in the Ukrainian tradition, it was never allowed to dance in the church. And not only in Ukrainian, it has always been forbidden in the practice of both Universal Orthodoxy and the Catholic Church. After all, the church is a place of prayer, a place of the Divine Eucharist and sacred Sacraments, a place of repentance and spiritual purification... It is a sacred space. And if we talk about national traditions, it is not difficult to guess how the same Zaporizhian Cossacks, who often punished blasphemy and disrespect for shrines quite harshly, would react to such behavior of artists in the church... In the Cossack tradition, for such a thing, they would not just be thrown out of the church, but at least whipped... Such were the traditions then.

From numerous descriptions, we know that the Cossacks did not allow themselves to enter the church without removing their hats, fell to their knees before icons and relics of saints, prayed, and did not allow themselves irreverent behavior before the shrines. Even when entering the church while intoxicated, they began to make prostrations... So how does this fit into "national traditions" when dressed-up artists opposite the Altar, in front of the Royal Doors, next to the relics of Saints Theodosius, Philaret, and Lavrenty of Chernihiv, not only sing in hats but also dance? Is such "sharovary" in the church a true return to the "spiritual traditions" of our ancestors, particularly the Cossacks? Is it really necessary to arrange this in the church?

When our hetmans and Cossacks built churches and monasteries, they revered them with great piety and reverence as shrines and sacred centers. This was our age-old Ukrainian spiritual-national tradition. Yes, Christmas carols, canticles, and other spiritual chants were definitely sung there on Christmas, nativity scenes were arranged, including in churches, accompanied by kobza, bandura, and other musical instruments. Such a tradition indeed existed. But at the same time, they did not cross a certain boundary and, moreover, never danced in the church. For this, there were and are other places and halls...

In the millennial Ukrainian spiritual tradition, from the times of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine to the very beginning of the 20th century, the attitude towards the sacred space of churches and monasteries was always distinguished by special piety and reverence, with appropriate behavior on the territory of the shrine. The situation changed only after the Moscow-Bolshevik occupation of Ukraine, when the communist godless power forcibly tried for decades to desecrate our shrines, break, and teach Ukrainians not to treat them with respect and reverence.

It seems that now, from some secular figures and officials, there is again the same desire to turn ancient Ukrainian shrines into ordinary museum-public spaces and concert halls, where various secular events, shows, and concerts would be held, and the Church (regardless of names) would be "present" only as a museum decoration and only on certain days with their permission. There is a desire to desacralize and leave this space outside the influence of any Churches.

It is obvious that the de-Moscovization of traditions and shrines and their desacralization are not the same thing. And we must clearly understand and distinguish this. After all, disrespect for the shrine and crossing the boundary of behavior in the church is precisely a purely Bolshevik, Soviet practice. As well as misunderstanding or ignorance of what is permissible to do in the church and what is not.

Ilarion Ohienko once warned against such a danger, emphasizing that in the Ukrainian millennial tradition and culture, the Christian church, including monastic heritage, is deeply rooted, and if our culture is tried to be separated from it (as the Bolsheviks tried to do), it will cease to be truly Ukrainian, lose its spiritual foundation, its meaning, and "soul".

Both the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Chernihiv Trinity-Ilyinsky Monastery, where we have recently observed various concerts with dances, actually had a completely different purpose. From the very beginning, over 900 years ago, they were conceived and built by monks (both monasteries were founded by the Athonite monk St. Anthony of Pechersk) precisely as a sacred space, as a place of prayer and ascetic feats of monks, as a kind of "icon" or image of the Holy Mount Athos, Mount Sinai, and the Holy Land of Palestine transferred to the Kyiv and Chernihiv hills. Thanks to this, for centuries they were those life-giving spiritual monastic centers and centers that attracted thousands of believers from all corners of Ukraine and other countries.

They attracted precisely to the shrines, not with concerts and dances, but with ascetic feats, prayer, spiritual meanings and practices, deep piety, spiritual healings...

These are unique places in their sacred significance, comparable to the Holy Mount Athos and other spiritual centers of Christianity. It is this sacredness that makes them valuable and unique. And this is worth nurturing and preserving. Especially now, during the war, when people need true spiritual comfort and support.

I imagine if someone wanted to organize concerts with dances on Athos, they would receive a very sharp reaction, and even the Greek authorities would not be able to influence it. It would cause a storm of protests in the entire Greek society, which greatly respects its own shrines, particularly monastic ones.

For many years, I have been engaged in research on the history and heritage of monasticism, both in Ukraine and on the Holy Mount Athos and the Holy Land. This is a unique layer of our history and culture, undeservedly forgotten and devalued, and in need of revival. This heritage of ours, over the years of imperial and Soviet hollowing, has been significantly distorted and damaged. It needs restoration on the basis of true spiritual sources. It needs to be returned to its old Kyiv, purely Ukrainian content (in a church-religious, not secular sense), in accordance with our centuries-old Kyiv-Pechersk ascetic tradition.

Specializing in these issues, I can unequivocally warn that experiments with the desacralization of monastic shrines (consciously or unconsciously) and using them not for their intended purpose will not lead to anything positive...

Religious feelings of fellow citizens are a delicate topic, and here one must approach it carefully and with knowledge, so as not to offend such feelings and not provoke conflicts. This is already about professionalism. Everything has its place and boundary.

True de-Moscovization and decommunization involve a return to our spiritual origins, where such shrines as the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Chernihiv Trinity-Ilyinsky Monastery, as ancient centers of monastic life, have always played a leading spiritual role as sacred centers of the Ukrainian people.

This is how they should remain in the future. Unfortunately, experiments with dances in these shrines do not contribute to this in any way...

PS. Personally, the Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv had its own special spiritual significance for me. In the courtyard under its walls, my entire childhood passed. I remember very well the desecrated and defiled state it was in during the reign of communism, how I secretly tried to sneak inside as a child, and how everything was neglected there then ("the abomination of desolation" (Mt. 24:15, 16)). This church is associated with perhaps my first spiritual experience in the early 1980s when catacomb nuns from Liskovytsia, former novices of St. Lavrenty of Chernihiv, prayed on their knees under the closed cathedral walls. Following their example, I also knelt and prayed. This was around 1980. One of the nuns lived near the monastery, and I remember visiting her house and drinking tea when I was very young (I was about 4 or

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