The 1996 Mennonite Heritage Cruise

Last fall (1996) the second annual Mennonite Heritage Cruise took place along the Dnieper River, from Kiev to Odessa. The inaugural sailing had taken place the year before (September, 1995) (see Der Bote 6. März 1996 Nr. 10 to 15. Mai 1996 Nr. 20). This year's cruise lasted 12 days and included 155 passengers from Canada and the United States. Thirty-six of these passengers continued on to the Crimea for five days.

The cruise was again well organised by Marina and Walter Unger of First National Travel in Toronto. Passengers were divided into six groups with a leader responsible for each group. Group leaders were Bill Baerg of Winnipeg, Stefanie Unger of Prince George, Sandi Sparkes of Toronto, Al Lepp of Reedley, California, Ted Regehr of Calgary, and Glenna Janzen of St. Catherines.

Cruise leaders this year were Paul Toews, History professor and Director of the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Fresno, California, and myself. Our role was to present lectures on board and to provide the cruise participants with some Mennonite historical background.

Again two air carriers were utilized with Lufthansa flying from Toronto, via Frankfurt, to Kiev, and Austrian Airlines flying from New York, via Vienna. Both flights left on the 19th of September, 1996, and arrived the afternoon of the following day at the Borispol Airport in Kiev. After a lengthy process of passing through Ukrainian customs, the tour members were transferred by busses to the waiting cruise ship, the MS Akademik Viktor Glushkov.

On boarding, we were greeted in traditional fashion with bread and salt. Soon our suitcases were brought to our rooms. After unpacking, there was time to wander around the ship, to meet some of the fellow passengers and to view the wide Dnieper River. Supper was served at 7:00 o'clock, after which we all gathered in the lounge on the top deck. Galina Zadorovska, the Cruise Director, offered words of welcome to the cruise passengers. A chamber orchestra consisting of three ladies from Lviv then presented a concert of classical music. Selections included "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", as well as music written by Ukrainian composers.

After the concert, more visiting took place, with passengers getting to know each other. Jet-lag soon took effect and a very long day came to an end.

SATURDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 1996 - KIEV

Our first full day on board the Glushkov began with breakfast at 8:00, followed by a city tour. Buses picked us up at the ship and took us to see some of the sites of Kiev, a city of 2.5 million people, and the capital of Ukraine.

Our first stop was near St. Andrews Cathedral, completed in 1753 and designed in the High Italian Baroque style by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Rastrelli was born in Italy but came to Russia with his father when he was 16 years old. He eventually became Catherine the Great's favourite architect.

Here we took a walking tour, past the Ukrainian Museum of History where Scythian sculptures surround the building, and then to a lookout point from where one can look down on Podil, the northern area of the city. A former castle known as Richard's Castle and built in 1902, can be seen in the foreground. In the distance one can see the Dnieper River. Walking back to the bus we passed the outline of a stone foundation, representing what was once the Tythest (as in tything) Church, constructed in 988 during Prince Vladimir's time. It was later sacked by the Tatars and Mongols. A local lady stood absolutely motionless within the area of the former church, meditating.

After looking at the many souvenirs available from street vendors, we boarded our bus and headed to the western part of the city, to Babi Yar, where a large monument commemorates the atrocities carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War against the local Jews and others.

From here we returned to the centre of the city, stopping at the St. Sophia Cathedral complex. This was of particular interest to me. Although I had been here several times before, the grounds had always been closed. Now not only were the grounds accessible to us, but the cathedral itself was open to tourists. The cathedral dates back to 1037, from the time of Yaroslav the Wise. It is named after Hagia Sofia Cathedral in Istanbul. Originally built in the Byzantine style, it's exterior appearance was altered over time, much of it reflecting the Ukrainian Baroque period of the late 17th and early 18th Century. Only the basic structure of the interior and several interior mosaics are original. A scale model inside the church, shows its original appearance. In numerous locations, both inside and outside, the surface plaster has been removed from the walls, in order to show the original stone and mortar construction.

We spent some time wandering around the 12 acre complex and the area around it. The main entrance to the complex is through the 18th Century 76m high bell tower, off a large square, which has been recently renamed, from Bogdan Khmelnitsky Square to Sofiyivsky (St. Sophia) Square, its original name.

We then walked to the nearby Golden Gate, a 1982 reconstruction of a gate dating from 1037. It was one of three gates forming part of the fortification around Kiev at that time. The Mongols and the Tatars had destroyed them all.

We again boarded our bus and headed to St. Vladimir's Cathedral, located on Taras Sevchenko Boulevard, a wide Avenue with beautiful tall trees. The church was built between 1862 and 1886 in a neo-Byzantine style to commemorate the 900th anniversary of Christianity in Kiev. It is now the seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox church for Kiev region.

Entering the church, we heard the beautiful sound of a choir singing. A mass was in progress, with the Metropolitan in attendance. After the mass, he worked his way through the crowd, giving his blessing to the many people that thronged around him. It was a moving experience for the many participants.

The final stop of our morning excursion was at a monument and park adjacent to the Dnieper River. The monument commemorates the founding of the City of Kiev and depicts a sister and three brothers in a boat. Legend has it that the city was founded by a prince of a Slavic tribe named Kyy and his two younger brothers and sister, hence the name Kiev (Kyev) - of Kyy. The park was a busy place, with one wedding party after another, arriving in decorated wedding cars, then posing in front of the monument for photos. Our bus then took us back to the ship for lunch.

After lunch the tour buses headed to the Pecherskaya Lavra, a complex of churches, towers, a monastery, and various other buildings, as well as underground caves and catacombs. It was founded in the 11th Century and covers an area of 28 hectares along the bank of the Dnieper. I chose not to go on this tour. After a brief rest (Mittagschlaf), I went for a walk in the area near the ship, checking out the shops. I also found a hotel where I was able to change some dollars in Hryvna, the new Ukrainian currency that was only introduced a few weeks earlier. Much of this new paper money was printed in Canada.

I then returned to the ship, since I was expecting a visitor. Oleksandar and his son, Bohdan, soon arrived. Oleksander, formerly a senior member of the Ukrainian Ministery of the Environment, had spent a year in Winnipeg studying Civic Administration. I had gotten to know him there and had also visited his family on my last trip to the Ukraine. He had recently been hired by the Canadian Embassy as a Project Officer.

We had a pleasant but brief visit. I presented him with a copy of my recent book and asked him to present a copy, on my behalf, to the Canadian Ambassador, Mr. Christopher Westdal, since I had been unable to arrange a meeting with him.

Soon after my visitors left it was time for a brief meeting of the tour leaders, followed by supper at 7:00 p.m. After supper we gathered again in the lounge on the top deck, to hear a concert of Ukrainian folk music presented by Horlytsya, a group of seven musicians. They played and sang folk music from various parts of Ukraine, as well as some popular tunes with a Ukrainian folk interpretation.

At 10:00 p.m. the ship set sail down the Dnieper. After spending some time on deck chatting with fellow passengers and watching the lights of Kiev disappear behind us, I retired to my room for the night.

SUNDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 1996 - KHANEV

It was Sunday morning and we were continuing our journey down the Dnieper. The river was quite wide and both shorelines seemed a long distance away. An early 7:30 breakfast was scheduled for this morning followed by a church service at 8:30. We again gathered in the lounge on the top deck. Group leader Bill Baerg of Winnipeg who was responsible for the music program, had organized a choir and had already held a choir practice that morning.

The theme for the worship service was "From Generation to Generation". The worship leader was Abraham Friesen, a history professor from Goletta, California. The message was given by Alan Peters of Fresno. The opening hymn was "So lange Jesus bleibt der Herr", followed by an Antiphonal Reading - Grateful Remembrance, based on Psalm 107. The choir then sang "Auf Adlers Flügeln Getragen".

Alan Peters then began "Like pilgrims, we here today have retraced the steps of our forebears, and have returned to this land which has vitally shaped the personal history of each one of us here. It has been more than two hundred years since the first of our ancestors walked upon this soil, and caught sight of this mighty Dnieper River. Those pioneer settlers had made the fateful decision to leave oppression and opposition behind, and seek freedom and peace in a new land. They came here--to this refuge in Ukraine--with hope, ambition, enthusiasm and a deep faith in God. Their choice--made generations ago--still leaves its mark upon our lives, our traditions, our history, and our faith.

Those of us here have made this pilgrimage for a variety of reasons:

- some of us have come out of curiosity, to seek out and visit the sources of our own unique history, - others are here because of a deep desire to see and experience firsthand the places that our grandparents could never forget, and which shaped both them and us, - and some of us have struggled to achieve the courage and strength to return to this land and confront once again the overwhelming spectrum of personal memories which this land rekindles in our minds.

We will walk those old paths again, breathe once more the air of our memories, revisit the places that mark both the best and the worst of our history, and let the soil that our farmer forbears tended and nourished slip through our fingers--and touch our lives--once more. And on this Lord's Day, even though the old church buildings are gone or decaying, we worship together just as they once did, honouring the God of history who walked with them and is still with us, and who has strengthened, comforted, and inspired people of faith from generation to generation".

Using the analogy of the bucket brigade, he went on to describe how each of us, at birth, has received a "bucket" full of history and tradition, how during our lifetime we add to and modify the contents of our bucket, and how we pass on the contents of our bucket to those who come after us.

He continued "My reflections concerning the "bucket brigade" have also given me a new understanding of the communion service in the life of the church. While little is written in scripture regarding this important celebration, the Apostle Paul's brief comments regarding the Lord's Supper in his First Letter to the Church at Corinth provide us with some helpful clues in understanding the significance of this act of worship. What initially struck my eye were the first words of Paul's instructions: "What I received from the Lord I have delivered to you." Here, once again, is "bucket brigade" language! "Receiving" and "delivering" are made an integral part of the most sacred ceremony of the Body of Christ, the Church.

Now that I have started thinking of communion in "bucket brigade" terms, my understanding of the faith community has broadened considerably. I once somewhat naively viewed communion basically as the Christian's way of joining together with other believers in remembering and honouring Christ's gift of himself to the Church. Now, whenever I participate in the celebration of communion, my thoughts inevitably bridge the limits of time and space, and I reflect on the intergenerational nature of the fellowship of believers. Each time I pass the bread and cup, I recognize that I am part of the "cloud of witnesses", beginning with that band of disciples in the upper room who first heard the words, "Do this in remembrance," and stretching forward all the way to the band of disciples who will ultimately share this celebration once again with Christ in Paradise. We are part of an awe- inspiring chain of believers, passing bread and wine (and bucket-loads of other treasures) from hand to hand, from generation to generation.

As we sift through the contents of our buckets during these coming days, as we contemplate our responsibility and obligation to ‘receive' and ‘deliver' to those we touch, may we seek God's help in being as faithful as our grandparents, and their grandparents, and theirs too, have been in showering us with the faith, the traditions, the models, and the resources, that have enabled each one of us to be a follower of Christ. And generations from now, when some future tour group walks upon the ground where we have settled and tries to remember the impact that we have had upon their lives and faith, I pray that we will also be remembered as people who faithfully delivered our treasures of faith, history, tradition, and experience to those who reached out their hands for the fruits of our lives. May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, commitment, and courage * to treasure the inheritance that we have so generously received; * to tend and nourish it as we contribute to it out of the riches of our own life experiences; * and, finally to prove our capable stewardship of this treasure by delivering it, holy and perfect, into the hands of those who follow us in the way. For it is through this simple but ancient process that the knowledge, love, and power of God has been received and delivered, from hand to hand, from person to person, from generation to generation."

The service then concluded with another hymn, "Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe", and a Scriptural Reflection and Benediction by the worship leader. This brought to a close a very special worship service.

Soon our ship arrived at Khanev, the burial place of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's most important national hero, and the location of a monument dedicated to him. (There is also a monument to Taras Shevchenko located on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg). Buses were available to take the tour members up the hill to the monument and adjacent museum, which displays his life and works. But most of us chose to walk the 300 steps. Many followed the local tradition of buying flowers from the sidewalk vendors, to lay at the base of the monument.

After a guided tour of the museum, we spent some time enjoying the park area around the monument. We then returned to the ship, but not before buying some more locally crafted souvenirs. Back on the ship, we gathered in the lounge to hear a young law student from Kiev present a lecture on the history of Ukraine. His comments about present-day conditions were particularly insightful and frank. He noted for example, that the movement toward privatization is far behind schedule, due in large part to the government's inability or will to put in place proper policies. On the other hand, he noted that the problem of Crimea, i.e. its wish for independence, had been solved diplomatically and without bloodshed. It is now an independent Republic within the Ukraine.

After responding to numerous questions from the audience he was thanked for his presentation, with the wish that he might some day become the leader of the Ukraine. We came away with the feeling that the future of the Ukraine can only improve if it has young people that are the calibre of this young man.

It was then time for lunch. At 2:00 p.m. the ship set sail again and at 3:30 p.m. we again gathered in the lounge to hear Paul Toews present an introduction to Russian Mennonite History. At this time Larissa Goryacheva, the Manager of the Tourist Complex Zaporoshye, also spoke briefly to us, extending words of welcome. She along with Olga Shmakina and Lyudmila Karyaka, the two most experienced Mennonite tour guides from Zaporoshye, had already joined us in Kiev. This gave them an opportunity to get to know the cruise passengers better, and more importantly, to assist in arranging the various tours that would be available during our stay in Zaporoshye.

At 4:30 p.m. it was time for Faspa. Harbus (watermelon) and Khrusty (similar to Rollkuchen) were served. Paul then continued with the Russian Mennonite story, up to the present time. Supper then followed.

Since I needed some time to prepare for my presentation, I decided to skip supper. Then at 8:30 p.m. everyone again assembled in the lounge, and I gave a slide presentation on the development of Mennonite architecture in Russia. This brought to an end another day on the Dnieper.

Continue with the next part of Rudy's 1996 Cruise Account

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