Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and all Ukraine
(given name Victor Sabodan)
He was born into a peasant family in the Khmelnytskiy region of Ukraine in 1935. His father was a church elder. From early childhood he assisted at the altar and sang in the choir. He recalls his first spiritual director, Father Sylvester, his parish priest, who taught him Old Church Slavonic, taught him how to understand icons and encouraged a love for literature.
In 1954 he entered the Odessa Seminary, in 1962 he graduated from the Leningrad (today St. Petersburgh) Spiritual Academy and began teaching at the Odessa Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood that same year and took monastic vows and the name Volodymyr. In 1966 he was ordained bishop; he was appointed to represent the Russian Orthodox Church in the World Council of Churches in Geneva. At a council of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held in Kharkiv in March 1992, he was elected head of the UOC-MP to replace Metropolitan Filaret.
He thinks that the Ukrainian Church can only be declared autocephalous in strict adherence to canon law and with the agreement of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. He maintains that even under such conditions a new split in the Church will be inevitable and his task is to minimize the harsh consequences which might occur from such a split. As Metropolitan of Kyiv he has the second position in the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (the Patriarch of Moscow has first position).
He maintains permanent contacts with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and many figures in political and financial circles, but he avoids public events. He never attends meetings which Patriarch Filaret might attend.
He enjoys singing. He collects recordings of Ukrainian folk songs, and also stamps and postcards. He has no objections to a good meal.
Text adapted from the Ukrainian-language journal "Liudyna i Svit" ("The Human Being and the World"), February, 1998.
