Spirituality and Arts
All the contemporary Ukrainian Churches that trace their beginnings back to the baptism of Kyivan-Rus in 988 (Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) are descendants of the Kyivan Church, which received the gift of baptism from Byzantium and inherited the rite of Byzantium.
"Rite" is the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary inheritance that varies according to the cultural and other historical circumstance of the nations. It manifests itself in the way that each Church practices its faith. The Eastern Christian Churches (Orthodox as well as Catholic) follow the following main traditions: Byzantine, Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian and Chaldean. The peoples who received baptism from Byzantium adapted the Byzantine rite to their concrete conditions, giving it an unrepeatable character, therefore there exist more specific rites, such as the Byzantine-Ukrainian and others.
The Byzantine rite manifests its spirituality through liturgy, architecture, sculpture, iconography, and music.
These arts, grounded to a significant extent on the Eastern Christian tradition, have contributed to the spiritual formation of many of the people of Ukraine, throughout history and today.
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