Father Aleksiy Irodov, the head of the religious community of martyr Volodymyr - Kyiev Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:

- A man is judged by the fruit of his deeds. But the fruit do not appear at once. In the course of life a person is growing up to a certain understanding. And it comes to one, and it is not a change of one's lifestyle, but the fruit of general tendency and general direction of the person. And this defines the past and present life of the person, that is, everything that the person has come to.

Any man is judged by the fruit of his deeds. In respect of Volodymyr Stepanovych I can say that I have personally felt his humanities, his kindness as an orthodox Christian caring of his church. Though today businessmen almost do not help the church, and if they do, their help is insignificant.  And to the greatest extent they do it of some interest.

I can see no txpectations in Volodymyr Stepanovych's deeds, this is, first of all, the Divine Providence.  Once we met in the street, started talking and the outcome was that our Temple is being constructed with his help and he is caring that our Temple should be there.  

Unlike other confessions, our orthodox church has always depended financially only on people, on society. If the society is poor, the church is poor too, if the society has troubles, the church has troubles too. It is just priceless that there is a person in the parish, who understands the situation and can help…

There a saying goes: money is a pauper's blood. Every person helps his church as he can. I think that his help is sincere and deserved. I am very glad and all of us are thankful to him for this.

I will repeat, a man's life is judged by the fruit of his deeds. And nobody can judge someone else's life. Some people really do want to dominate at the expense of reproaching their neighbours. It is in the human nature.

But there is no person who could live his life without sinning.

Being a clergyman, I know the soul of each my parishioner. So, I can say about the human soul that a person differs little from another one. There is no difference between the depth of sins and human's highness. Everyone who has lived a life realizes: there are always people who will say that you are doing wrong. And at the same time, there are people who will say: you are doing right.

There is an old tale of an old man, who was walking over a town with his donkey and grandson. The changed their places for people's satisfaction. At the end of the story the old man had to carry the donkey. And people shouted: "An old donkey is carrying a young one".

The meaning is that there are always people who would want to throw a stone at you as soon as you have become famous. Just for nothing. And they will invent a reason and will have a desire to do this. But a person should live thinking over his life - how and why he is living. After all, if you listen to what people say about you or someone else, almost everything turns to be lie. Slander, human spite! And today almost nobody is being spoken well about.  I have been living here already five years, I studied here and was grew up… I cannot remember someone speaking well about others. On TV, again, nobody is being spoken well about too. Why? It is not in the habit among us to speak well about someone.

Are we so cold, or something? Or is it the time to swear? To speak badly of each other…

A person's life is determined not by the fact that he is considered a righteous person, that he has never sinned in his life. No, not by this. But by what he is aiming at, what he is gaining. What a person managed to gain, that he is rich in. Both in the church and in his life a person finds what he is seeking for. If you ask a person: "What have you got?" and he will answer: "I am not satisfied", one can say, it is the outcome of what the person has been gaining all his life, whether he told himself about this or not, realized this or not. If a person - whatever he is spoken about - helps the church, works, not only for his own profit or to give a build-up to himself… Volodymyr Stepanovych has never been seeking publicity.

Our acquaintance is Divine Providence. First of all, the Lord disposed and here is such a person. I seldom meet such people. Because people think mostly about themselves. And not just to do good for themselves. People are unable to live a right, worthy life, to define priorities. The first priority in one's life is, first of all, to try to please the Lord.

The church is for sinners. Not for the righteous. Righteous people - and it is said so in the Holy Writ - are called, and they have not come to the Earth. And the Lord gathered from various places, streets, crossroads those who may not be deserving, but He gathered them in the orthodox church, the people who wanted to find Him. That is why, the church is open for those who want to find the Lord. Who does not want to find, he does not go to church. Volodymyr Stepanovych is a person who came to his church, and not only he just came there, but he is working to make it his orthodox church that is here. What is more, this is a successive place. Before here was a Temple, and then it was ruined.

Only the Lord knows who this person is and what kind of person he is. And a man is judged by his deeds. One meets any people - good and bad, and whichever. But in fact, all people are the same. There are no good or bad people. A man reveals himself in his doings. What he is aiming at, that he is collecting. He will be remembered by this. What about mistakes? I think nobody should make excuses to anybody. Each and every person makes mistakes. And those come to church who what to have their souls healed, not those who are righteous and experienced. One comes to church in order to take. It is always like this.

If at the same time a person realizes that he wants to help the church, it is the Divine Providence and it is good.