Журнал Viche 2009 №15

№15, 2009

Why do Wooden Churches Burn?

Only during one year on the territory of Western Ukraine more than fifty wooden churches have burned.

That is covered by mass-media, fine art experts and architects beat an alarm and artists hurry to paint the last rarities of sacral wooden architecture, even deputies make decision at the session of the Lviv Regional Board about how to protect wood in old churches with the help of the newest chemical facilities so that they did not burn, and public organizations raise funds for the restoration of churches. But in spite of all these actions the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Response reports about a regular fire in a wooden church every month. What kind of mystic is it? All dark forces seem to unite against wooden temples in order to convert them into the scene of conflagration. But to hide an enemy under the mask of dark force is the easiest thing. However, dark forces will not appear in the heads of people without dark thoughts. The journalist from “Viche” figured out how to overcome those forces of pragmatism, greed, callousness, and absence of culture in order to come to the unique general project of how to save wooden shrines.

“An old church was set on fire in Yavorov. The Regional Board decided to rebuild it. They arrived in a month, but they found that the footing for a new stone church had been already done there.”

Larysa Marchuk