Ukraine will soon have its own independent Orthodox church. Fueled by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the fact that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church is closely aligned with the Russian government, the move could split the Eastern Orthodox world and, according to Moscow, have “catastrophic” consequences.
As a result of historical events and cultural differences between Eastern and Western Ukraine, the country has three separate Orthodox churches.
Most Orthodox parishes are still technically under the wing of the Moscow Patriarchate. Though called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, it is an autonomous entity within the Russian Orthodox Church comprised of about 12,000 parishes – roughly one-third of all churches under the Moscow Patriarchate.
The second Orthodox Church in Ukraine split off from Moscow in the 1990s and is today headed by Patriarch Filaret, who was defrocked and excommunicated by Moscow. Filaret, who has supported the current government in Kiev and has overseen a “Ukrainization” of religious services, has jurisdiction over about 5,000 parishes. His church was not recognized by either Moscow or the Patriarchate in Constantinople, which is considered the “first among equals” among Eastern Orthodox churches and is now chaired by Bartholomew I.
The third church in Ukraine is its Autocephalous Church, an underground church that split from Moscow in 1921 and was then resurrected by newly independent Ukraine in 1991. It is headed by Metropolitan Makariy, and its parishes are concentrated in Western Ukraine.
Since 2014, despite Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea, to say nothing of Moscow’s support for (and incitement of) separatists in Eastern Ukraine that are warring with Kiev, this three-church reality has held. But early this year Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked Bartholomew to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independence, or autocephaly, which would make it an independent member of the world Orthodox community, no longer subordinate to Moscow.
Over the summer, Bartholomew indicated that “uniting” the Orthodox churches in Ukraine was a good idea. “As the Mother Church, it is reasonable to desire the restoration of unity for the divided ecclesiastical body in Ukraine,” he said.
In October, the Constantinople Patriarchate reinstated the formally defrocked Filaret, and agreed to start the process of independence for Ukraine’s Orthodox Church. A new leader of this Church will be chosen in Ukraine, after which parishes will decide if they want to join it.
But do Ukrainian churches subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate actually want to be unified under a different authority?
The ensuing debate has inflamed tempers on both sides, with Moscow treating the idea as an invasion of its canonical territory. Some high-ranking clerics in Ukraine who serve Moscow went so far as to say that a Ukrainian autocephaly would be a “venom” poisoning the global Orthodox community.
When, at the end of August, Patriarch Kirill met with Bartholomew, he mixed politics into his argument for the status quo, saying Ukraine’s “Maidan” are a group of radicals who have taken over and want to boost their political power through church independence. Meanwhile, Kirill’s right hand in matters diplomatic, Metropolitan Hilarion, has apparently accused Bartholomew of taking bribes from the Ukrainian president.
The issue has caused a deeper rift than ever between Moscow and Constantinople. On October 15, the Russian Church ended its relationship with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Pro-Russian websites are now predicting “raids” by radical Ukrainian nationalists on important churches of the Moscow Patriarchate there, including the iconic Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kiev. Fake warnings about the threat of neo-Nazis storming Orthodox monasteries proliferated across social networks. Insults flung at Patriarch Filaret included labeling his church “Orthodoxy from hell.” On the official website of the important Pochayiv Lavra in Ternopil Oblast, Western Ukraine, the monastery’s leader called on parishioners and supporters to “defend” the monastery from “reprisals.”
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