Today, Year 1 had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Ukrainian Cathedral as part of our Religious Education learning this half term. We have been exploring churches in a global context, discovering the similarities and differences in the ways Christians around the world celebrate Mass, use artwork, and express their faith through music and prayer. Over the past few weeks, we have also learnt about churches in different parts of the world, including Central Africa.
After a short 15-minute walk, we arrived at the magnificent 130-year-old Ukrainian Cathedral on Duke Street in Central London. As soon as we stepped inside, the children were amazed by its beauty and were eager to learn more about this special place of worship.
We began our visit with an introduction to the cathedral and learnt about some of its unique features. We explored the altar, the Royal Doors, and the iconostasis – a beautiful screen found in Ukrainian churches that is covered with icons depicting important moments in Jesus’ life. We discovered that the icon of Jesus is always placed on the left, while an image of Mary, the Mother of God, is always on the right. The children also admired the artwork showing key events from Jesus’ life, including the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Last Supper, His Crucifixion, and His Resurrection. Above these were images of the Twelve Apostles, with a cross at the top symbolising Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
We were fascinated to learn that the cathedral is a very busy place of worship, with more than 900 people attending Sunday services each week. It is also a popular place for weddings, and we were amazed to hear that six weddings had taken place there the previous weekend!
One of the highlights of our visit was witnessing part of the Liturgy. We noticed that the prayers are sung rather than spoken, which reminded us of what we had learnt about worship in the church we studied in Central Africa. We also felt very privileged to receive a special blessing.
To finish our visit, we climbed to the balcony to admire the cathedral from above. It was wonderful to see the church from a different perspective, and while we were there, we sang a prayer to Jesus together.
We had a fantastic morning and feel incredibly fortunate to have experienced such a special visit. A huge thank you to everyone at the Ukrainian Cathedral for giving us such a warm welcome and helping us learn more about their faith and traditions.
