Ukraine's parliament advances bill seen as targeting Orthodox church with historic ties to Moscow

PETER SMITH
Thu, October 19, 2023 

The Monastery of the Caves, also known as Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the holiest sites of Eastern Orthodox Christians, is seen on March 23, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukraine's parliament overwhelmingly voted Thursday, Oct. 19, to advance legislation seen as effectively banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its ties to Moscow, despite the church's insistence that it is fully independent and supportive of Ukraine's fight against Russian invaders. 

(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File) 

Ukraine's parliament voted overwhelmingly Thursday to advance legislation seen as effectively banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its ties to Moscow, despite the church's insistence that it is fully independent and supportive of Ukraine's fight against Russian invaders.

The Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, voted 267-15 on the measure, which requires further voting before it gets finalized and reaches the desk of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The legislation would prohibit the activities of religious organizations "that are affiliated with the centers of influence of a religious organization, the management center of which is located outside of Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine.”

That is seen as directly targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, one of two rival Orthodox bodies in the country, where a majority of citizens identify as Orthodox.


The UOC has historically been affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. It declared its full independence from Moscow in May 2022, three months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and has repeatedly declared its loyalty and called on members to fight for Ukraine. Its leader, Metropolitan Onufry, said earlier this month that it's the “sacred duty” of every believer to defend Ukraine.

But many Ukrainians remain suspicious of the church and whether it has fully cut ties with Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who has strongly supported the war as a metaphysical battle against Western liberalism.

A government study earlier this year disputed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s declaration of independence. The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience said after examining the UOC’s governing documents that the church remains a structural unit of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Many lawmakers burst into cheers Thursday as the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, read out the tally of the vote. When Stefanchuk called for the voting, he urged the lawmakers to “have faith in the Lord God and love Ukraine.”

Parliament member Inna Sovsun commented on Facebook afterward: “So far this is only a first reading, but still a historic decision. … . It is extremely important to me to put an end to the (Russian Orthodox Church) activities in Ukraine.”

Ukraine's security service, the SBU, reported earlier this month it has initiated 68 criminal proceedings against UOC representatives since the war began, bringing charges such as treason, collaboration, aiding and abetting an aggressor country, public incitement to religious hatred, sale of firearms and the distribution of child pornography. According to the SBU, Ukrainian citizenship was revoked for 19 UOC representatives who held Russian passports and spread pro-Kremlin propaganda about the war..

UOC leaders emphasized that the Rada vote was preliminary and called on representatives to revise the measure. The church legal department said it violates the right to freedom of religion established in the nation's constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

“It is certain that the adoption of this draft law will indicate that human rights and freedoms, for which our State also fights, are losing their meaning,” the church legal department said in a statement.

A similarly named body, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, received recognition as an independent church in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, but the UOC and Moscow have disputed his authority to confer that recognition.

The action comes amid an ongoing standoff at the historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a sacred Orthodox site in Kyiv where the government has sought to evict representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The oldest parts of the large complex, known in English as the Monastery of the Caves, date back a thousand years.

Patriarch Kirill, at a gathering honoring Orthodox media, criticized Ukraine's stance on the church.

"The children of our church (have) become objects of oppression and even bullying for the fact that they are bearers of centuries-old Russian culture, which is inseparable from the heritage of Russian statehood," he said, according to the state-run news agency Tass. "The so-called abolition of Russian culture, this shameless slander and unpunished destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are ways to oppose and quarrel those who are related to the single spiritual and cultural heritage created by the peoples of historical Rus.”

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AP journalists Hanna Arhirova and Nebi Qena in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

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Parliament passes bill on banning Russia-affiliated religious organizations in first reading

Dinara Khalilova, The Kyiv Independent news desk
Thu, October 19, 2023 


The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, passed in its first reading on Oct. 19 a bill that could ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), lawmakers reported.

The bill would prohibit the activities of any religious organizations affiliated with war propaganda or justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak from the opposition party Voice, 267 members of parliament voted in favor of the bill, 15 against, and two abstained.

MP Iryna Herashchenko (from former president Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party) called the vote "historic."

"The Verkhovna Rada took the first step to expel Moscow priests from Ukrainian land… It (the draft law) is not about religion or church, but about protecting the national security of Ukraine," she said in a video message.

"It's about the fact that the church, which has a metropolis in Moscow, is not really a church, but a branch of the FSB (Russian security services). And it can be banned in court."

Read also: ISW: Russia ‘weaponizes religion’ to discredit Ukraine, achieve military goals

Ukraine has two main Orthodox churches — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (Kyiv Patriarchate).

The Moscow-controlled church (UOC-MP) has been accused of aligning with the Russian government during the war, which the church's leadership has denied.

Since November last year, Ukraine's law enforcement has raided multiple premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, alleging that the church is at the heart of "subversive activities by Russian special services."

The Ukrainian government evicted the UOC-MP from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and has brought charges against church leaders for spreading pro-war propaganda.

54% of Ukrainians believe the UOC-MP should be banned, according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.


Ukraine's parliament backs ban on Russia-linked church in initial vote

Reuters
Updated Thu, October 19, 2023 


Believers pray while they block an entrance to a church at a compound of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) -The Ukrainian parliament gave initial approval on Thursday to a law that would ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after Kyiv accused it of collaborating with Russia following last year's invasion.

The UOC has historic links with Moscow, but says it is no longer aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church. It denies the charges leveled at it by Kyiv and said the draft law would be unconstitutional.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app that deputies had voted to support the bill in its first reading. It has to be backed in a second reading and approved by the president to go in to force.

The law would ban the activities of religious organisations affiliated with centres of influence "in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine", and such activities could be terminated by a court of law.

Another lawmaker, Iryna Herashchenko, said the vote was a step towards removing "Moscow priests from the Ukrainian land".

The head of Russia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, appealed to Orthodox and other churches to do what they could to stop Ukraine's action before the bill became law.

"I ask you to take all measures to prevent the continuation of the mass infringements of religious rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Kirill said in the appeal, which appeared on a church website. It was also addressed to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other figures.

The UOC said the draft law, one of several similar bills registered in parliament, did not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights or Ukraine's constitution.

Describing itself as an "independent and separate church", the UOC accused Kyiv of trying to pass it off as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church and portraying its Ukrainian clergymen and believers as "agents of the Russian Federation".

An independent Orthodox church was founded in Ukraine soon after independence from Soviet rule and has long competed for adherents with the Russia-linked church. It only received formal recognition from the world Orthodox hierarchy in 2018.

Ukrainian authorities and many people in Ukraine had for years seen the UOC as loyal to Moscow, and cracked down on the church after Russia's February 2022 invasion. Tensions have surfaced across the country.

A government commission has ruled the UOC is still canonically linked to Russia despite the church declaring that it cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church in May 2022.

UOC Metropolitan Pavlo has been notified he is suspected of inciting inter-religious hatred and distributing materials justifying Russian aggression. He has denied the accusations.

Ukraine's Security Service said on Thursday 68 criminal cases, including accusations of treason, had been initiated against UOC representatives since Russia's invasion.

Analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said a ban on the UOC could be challenged in Ukraine and at the European Court of Human Rights. Fesenko suggested the church could register as a new entity with "no reference whatsoever to canonical ties" with Russia.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Ron Popeski and Lincoln Feast.)


Kyiv a step closer to banning Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Kristina Harazim
Thu, October 19, 2023 


Ukraine’s lower house of parliament has passed a bill in the first of two required readings that would ban religious organisations and churches with alleged ties to Russia or in favour of its invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv accuses the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) specifically of collaborating with Russia after its invasion of the country in 2022.

The bill was backed by 267 deputies and opposed by 15. It will become law if it passes a second reading and is signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun praised the vote as "extremely important".

"So far, this is only the first reading but it is still a historic decision," she said on social media. "In order to defeat the aggressor, we need to think asymmetrically and leave no room for Russia to harm us," she added.

Ukraine war: Kyiv security service sanctions 10 pro-Russian Orthodox priests

Moscow-affiliated branch of Ukrainian Orthodox Church cuts ties over war

Leaders of the UOC declared the church's independence from Moscow last May over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UOC said the proposed ban violated the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees freedom of religion.

"Undoubtedly, the adoption of this draft law will indicate that human rights and freedoms, for which our state is also fighting, are losing their meaning," it said in a statement.

The proposed ban has been controversial in Ukraine, where some parishioners still attend churches linked to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Russia has described Kyiv's treatment of the church as religious persecution.

A date has not been set for the second reading of the bill.

SBU: Russian Orthodox Church runs private military companies to train fighters for Ukraine deployment

Martin Fornusek
Thu, October 19, 2023 


The Kremlin-linked Russian Orthodox Church is building and running private military companies (PMC), which recruit and train fighters for deployment in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Oct. 19.

The Church receives funding for these activities from financial and industrial groups close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the SBU said. These funds are reportedly donated as "charitable contributions" for "construction of churches."

One example of a church-run PMC named by the SBU is the St. Andrew's Cross organization based in the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral in northwestern Russia.

The Russian news outlet Bloknot reported on the St. Andrew's Cross's activities last year, calling it "the first PMC under the Russian Orthodox Church." The group was reportedly set up in 2017 to provide military training for other mercenary companies' recruits.

The cathedral's abbot Alexey denied in a comment for Russian media that the St. Andrew's Cross would be a mercenary company, saying it only teaches skills to youth and adults for future military service.

According to the SBU, the Kronstadt-based PMC is recruiting local parishioners, primarily those with military experience, and providing them with training for combat deployment in Ukraine.

The instructions are carried out on the cathedral's grounds or in specialized training facilities in cooperation with Russian special services, the SBU said.

Despite being illegal in Russia, PMCs are widely used by the Kremlin for war efforts in Ukraine and to promote Russian interests in other regions of the world, such as Africa.

The most notorious group is the Wagner Company, set up by now-deceased Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin. Following their deployment on Ukraine's eastern front, Wagner fighters launched a short-lived uprising against the Russian government in June.

Read also: Prigozhin’s death latest in a series of unsolved murders in Putin’s Russia. What’s next?


Russian Church creates "Orthodox private military companies" for war in Ukraine

Ukrainska Pravda
Thu, October 19, 2023


The Russian Orthodox Church creates its own private military companies on the territory of the Russian Federation. These groups engage in the recruitment and combat training of mercenaries among believers for the war against Ukraine on the instructions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

Source: Security Service of Ukraine (SSU)

Details: The Security Service has documented that one such private military company, St Andrew's Cross, operates out of the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral in St Petersburg.

Reportedly, its representatives are recruiting believers for service in the occupation forces within the walls of the religious institution.

During the selection of potential candidates, the preference is given to men who have already served in the military units of the aggressor country and have combat experience.

They undergo military-tactical and fire training under the guidance of instructors from the Russian special services after enlisting in the ranks of the private military companies.

Their organisers conduct training of recruits exclusively within the cathedral's walls, as well as on special training grounds to disguise combat training.

Quote: "It has been established that the financing of such private military companies is carried out by representatives of the financial and industrial groups of the aggressor country close to the head of the Kremlin. The money goes to the accounts of the Russian Orthodox Church in the form of charitable contributions and donations for the ‘construction of temples’," the SSU said.

The Security Service conducts complex measures to establish all the circumstances of the exposed crimes and bring the culprits to justice on the basis of documented facts.

Background: The Russian Orthodox Church supports Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Even last year, Moscow Patriarch Kirill told believers that death in the war against Ukraine "cleanses away all sins".

EXPLAINER: How is Russia-Ukraine war linked to religion?
By PETER SMITH2 hours ago


 People pray next to the body of Ukrainian Army captain Anton Sydorov, 35, killed in eastern Ukraine, during his funeral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)


Ukraine’s tangled political history with Russia has its counterpart in the religious landscape, with Ukraine’s majority Orthodox Christian population divided between an independent-minded group based in Kyiv and another loyal to its patriarch in Moscow.

But while there have been appeals to religious nationalism in both Russia and Ukraine, religious loyalty doesn’t mirror political fealty amid Ukraine’s fight for survival.

Even though Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine in part as a defense of the Moscow-oriented Orthodox church, leaders of both Ukrainian Orthodox factions are fiercely denouncing the Russian invasion, as is Ukraine’s significant Catholic minority.

“With prayer on our lips, with love for God, for Ukraine, for our neighbors, we fight against evil - and we will see victory,” vowed Metropolitan Epifany, head of the Kyiv-based Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

“Forget mutual quarrels and misunderstandings and ... unite with love for God and our Motherland,” said Metropolitan Onufry, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is under the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow but has broad autonomy.

Even that seemingly united front is complicated. A day after posting Onufry’s message on Thursday, his church’s website began publishing reports claiming its churches and people are being attacked, blaming one attack on the representatives of the rival church.

The division between Ukraine’s Orthodox bodies has reverberated worldwide in recent years as Orthodox churches have struggled with how and whether to take sides. Some U.S. Orthodox hope they can put such conflicts aside and unite to try to end the war, while also fearing the war could exacerbate the split.

WHAT IS THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE OF UKRAINE?

Surveys estimate a large majority of Ukraine’s population is Orthodox, with a significant minority of Ukrainian Catholics who worship with a Byzantine liturgy similar to that of the Orthodox but are loyal to the pope. The population includes smaller percentages of Protestants, Jews and Muslims.

Ukraine and Russia are divided by a common history, both religiously and politically.

They trace their ancestry to the medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus, whose 10th century Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr in Ukrainian) rejected paganism, was baptized in Crimea and adopted Orthodoxy as the official religion.

In 2014, Putin cited that history in justifying his seizure of Crimea, a land he called “sacred” to Russia.

While Putin says Russia is the true heir to Rus, Ukrainians say their modern state has a distinct pedigree and that Moscow didn’t emerge as a power until centuries later.

That tension persists in Orthodox relations.

Orthodox churches have historically been organized along national lines, with patriarchs having autonomy in their territories while bound by a common faith. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is considered first among equals but, unlike a Catholic pope, doesn’t have universal jurisdiction.

WHO GOVERNS UKRAINE’S ORTHODOX CHURCHES TODAY?

That depends how to interpret events of more than 300 years ago.

With Russia growing in strength and the Constantinople church weakened under Ottoman rule, the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1686 delegated to the Patriarch of Moscow the authority to ordain the metropolitan (top bishop) of Kyiv.

The Russian Orthodox Church says that was a permanent transfer. The Ecumenical Patriarch says it was temporary.

For the past century, independent-minded Ukrainian Orthodox have formed separate churches which lacked formal recognition until 2019, when current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as independent of the Moscow patriarch — who fiercely protested the move as illegitimate.

The situation in Ukraine was murkier on the ground.

Many monasteries and parishes remain under Moscow’s patriarch, though exact statistics are difficult to find, said John Burgess, author of “Holy Rus’: The Rebirth of Orthodoxy in the New Russia.” On the village level, many people may not even know about their parish’s alignment, Burgess said.

DOES THIS SCHISM REFLECT THE POLITICAL SPLIT BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES?

Yes, though it’s complicated.

Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, drew a direct link: “The independence of our church is part of our pro-European and pro-Ukrainian policies,” he said in 2018.

But current President Vladimir Zelinskyy, who is Jewish, has not put the same emphasis on religious nationalism. On Saturday, he said he had spoken to both Orthodox leaders as well as top Catholic, Muslim and Jewish representatives. “All leaders pray for the souls of the defenders who gave their lives for Ukraine and for our unity and victory. And that’s very important,” he said.

Putin has tried to capitalize on the issue.

In his Feb. 21 speech seeking to justify the imminent invasion of Ukraine with a distorted historical narrative, Putin claimed without proof that Kyiv was preparing for the “destruction” of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

But the reaction of the Metropolitan Onufry, who compared the war to the “sin of Cain,” the biblical character who murdered his brother, indicates that even the Moscow-oriented church has a strong sense of Ukrainian national identity.

By comparison, Moscow Patriarch Kirill has called for peace but has not laid blame for the invasion.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate has long had extensive autonomy. Plus, it’s increasingly Ukrainian in character.

“Regardless of church affiliation ... you have a lot of new clergy who grew up in independent Ukraine,” said Alexei Krindatch, national coordinator of the U.S. Census of Orthodox Christian Churches. “Their political preferences are not necessarily correlated with the formal jurisdictions of their parishes,” said Krindatch, who grew up in the former Soviet Union.

WHERE DO THE CATHOLICS FIT IN?

Ukrainian Catholics are based mainly in western Ukraine.

They emerged in 1596 when some Orthodox Ukrainians, then under the rule of the Catholic-dominated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, submitted to the authority of the pope under an agreement that allowed them to keep distinctive practices such as their Byzantine liturgy and married priests.

Orthodox leaders have long denounced such agreements as Catholic and foreign encroachment on their flocks.

Ukrainian Catholics have an especially strong history of resistance to persecution under czars and communists.

“Every time Russia takes over Ukraine, (the) Ukrainian Catholic Church is destroyed,” said Mariana Karapinka, head of communications for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Ukrainian Catholics were severely repressed by the Soviets, with several leaders martyred. Many Ukrainian Catholics continued to worship underground, and the church has rebounded strongly since the end of communism.

With that kind of history, Ukrainian Catholics may have a strong reason to resist another takeover by Moscow. But they’re not alone, Karapinka said. “Ukrainian Catholics were not the only group persecuted by the Soviets,” she said. “So many groups have reason to resist.”

Recent popes have tried to thaw relations with the Russian Orthodox Church even while defending the rights of Ukrainian and other Eastern Rite Catholics.

But after the Russian invasion, Pope Francis visited the Russian Embassy on Friday to personally “express his concern about the war,” the Vatican said, in an extraordinary papal gesture that has no recent precedent.

HOW HAS THE ORTHODOX SCHISM REVERBERATED BEYOND UKRAINE?

The Russian Orthodox Church decided to “break the Eucharistic communion” with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2018 as he moved to recognize an independent church in Ukraine. That means members of Moscow- and Constantinople-affiliated churches can’t take communion at the other’s churches.

The disputes have spread to Eastern Orthodox churches in Africa, where the Russian Orthodox have recognized a separate set of churches after Africa’s patriarch recognized the Ukraine church’s independence.

But many other churches have sought to avoid the fray. In the U.S., with multiple Orthodox jurisdictions, most groups still cooperate and worship with each other.

The war may provide a point of unity among U.S. churches but may further test relations, said the Very Rev. Alexander Rentel, chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, which has Russian roots but is now independent of Moscow.

“This split that took place in world Orthodoxy was a difficult event for the Orthodox Church to process,” he said. “Now it’s only going to become more difficult because of this war.”

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Associated Press reporters Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv and Luis Andres Henao in Princeton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Ukraine’s ban targeting Russian-linked faith groups raises religious freedom concerns

Even some supporters of Ukraine see the ban as an overstep in the name of national security, a violation of religious freedom and a potential risk to continued foreign

 military aid.

An aerial photo shows the thousand-year-old Monastery of Caves, also known as Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the holiest site of Eastern Orthodox Christians, taken through morning fog during a sunrise in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

August 21, 2024
By David I. Klein

(RNS) — On Tuesday (Aug. 20), the Ukrainian Parliament passed a long-anticipated bill that will ban the activities of churches deemed to be affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church or supporting the Russian invasion.

The legislation, expected to be signed into law soon by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, explicitly bans religious institutions subordinate to leaders based in Russia and is seen even by some supporters of Ukraine as an overstep in the name of national security, a violation of religious freedom and a potential risk to continued foreign military aid.

The clear target of the law is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with its historical ties to Moscow. The church declared itself independent of the Moscow Patriarchate three months after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 but many still suspect at least some of the church leadership has loyalties to Russia.

“The government in Kyiv wants to see the conduits of Russian influence in Ukrainian society totally minimized,” said Andreja Bogdanovski, an author, scholar and analyst of Orthodox Christianity.

Ahead of the vote, Zelenskyy said the law would “guarantee that there will be no manipulation of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.”

“This draft law must work and must add to Ukraine the unity of the cathedral, our real spiritual unity,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Historically, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been the largest faith group in Ukraine, but the country’s Orthodox Christians found themselves split in 2019, when a newer religious body, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was recognized as canonical and fully independent of Moscow under the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The OCU, which now represents the majority of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, formed in part from parishes resisting Russian control during Ukraine’s independence movements at the beginning and end of the 20th century. In the wake of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support of separatist militias in the Donbas region, the OCU was bolstered by Ukrainian clergymen who felt that Ukrainian Orthodox Christians needed a religious body divorced from Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill, who has long been a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has justified Russia’s aggression in spiritual terms.

The law, once signed, would equip the Ukrainian government to set up a commission to investigate religious institutions across the country. The commission would then have nine months to provide a list of those deemed subordinate to Russian institutions.

Ukraine’s largest organization of religious bodies, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which represents Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, endorsed the draft law in an Aug. 17 statement, praising the effort “to make it impossible for such organizations to operate in our country.”

Those that sever their ties to Russia during that period will be allowed to continue to function. What constitutes a tie and an appropriate level of separation have not yet been specified. These details are what in part delayed the legislation’s approval for more than a year and a half after Zelenskyy first endorsed its draft.

Iryna Herashchenko, the first deputy chairwoman of the Ukrainian Parliament, hailed the bill’s passing as a “historic vote.”

Parliament “has passed a bill banning the aggressor country’s branch in Ukraine. 265 MPs voted FOR! This is a matter of national security, not religion,” she announced on X.

Despite the broad support inside Ukraine, the bill has been strongly criticized by some Orthodox leaders, including those from populaces that support Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Bulgaria’s newly elected Patriarch Daniil sent a letter of support to Metropolitan Onufriy, the primate of the UOC. The Bulgarian church does not recognize the OCU as canonical, but the church and government have expressed support for Ukraine in the war.

“You have resisted and continue, with God’s help, to resist all attempts to create disunity, preserving the unity, integrity, and canonicity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Patriarch Daniill wrote.

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade lights candles during a Christian Orthodox Easter religious service, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 4, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Onufriy also received letters of support from the heads of the Antiochian and Georgian Orthodox churches. Both jurisdictions have issued statements shy of condemning Patriarch Kirill’s role in Russian aggression.

But the bill has also been blasted on religious freedom grounds by many observers and is expected to be challenged as Ukraine moves closer to joining the European Union.
RELATED: Ukrainian Orthodox churches purge vestiges of Russian influence

“It’s very hard diplomatically to reconcile this law with Ukraine’s European ambitions,” said Samuel Noble, a scholar of Orthodox Christianity at Aga Khan University in London. “This is the kind of thing that will wind up being brought to Strasbourg, that is, the European Court of Human Rights.”

“It’s not normally the kind of thing that one does in a country aspiring to join the European Union. On the other hand, Ukraine is not in a normal situation,” he added.

Smilen Markov, a Bulgarian scholar of Orthodox Christianity, put it more bluntly: “The Ukrainian state is violating religious freedom. It declares a religious community pro-Russian, which is legally problematic, divisive and ruinous.”

Regina Elsner, the chair of Eastern churches and ecumenism at the University of Muenster’s Ecumenical Institute, posted on Twitter that the legislation’s approval is “deeply disturbing.”

“This law opens a door to serious violations of religious freedom and new fragmentation within Ukraine,” she said. “The amendments of the last months did not improve anything. Hate and violence against UOC believers get public approval. Sad.”

Since the outbreak of full-scale war, Ukraine has jailed more than 100 UOC priests over charges of espionage and anti-Ukrainian speech, including posting opinions on social media and speaking from the pulpit.

The Russian Orthodox Church in particular has sought to use such religious freedom concerns to garner sympathy for the UOC and cast doubt on Western aid to Ukraine, which has been crucial for the Ukrainian defense.

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being subjected to reprisals for its refusal to join the organization of schismatics and self-ordained peoples, created as a political project aimed at destroying the common spiritual heritage of Russian and Ukrainian peoples,” said Vladimir Lagoida, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, on Telegram. “There is no doubt that the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will sooner or later receive a fair assessment, just as the godless regimes of the past received it, destroying the human right to faith and to belong to their Church.”

Patriarch Kirill, right, meets with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi at the Patriarchal Residence in Danilov Monastery, in Moscow, Russia, June 29, 2023. (Photo by Moscow Patriarchate)

The UOC has ceased to commemorate Patriarch Kirill in prayers and has said it is not bound by the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“In Orthodox Church logic, that’s effectively a declaration of independence,” Noble said. “Even from the Russians’ perspective, officially on paper, the UOC is autonomous in all things, except for Onufriy’s seat on the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate, which he has more or less disowned.”

Still, many Ukrainians remain deeply suspicious of the UOC. In 2021, 18% of religious Ukrainians identified as members of the UOC, but months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, that dropped to just 4%, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. The same poll found OCU membership increased from 34% to 54%. In addition, hundreds of Orthodox congregations have switched allegiance from the UOC to the OCU, according to church records, but few monks, traditionally seen as sources of authority in the church, have followed.

“Of course, it is true that the hierarchy of the UOC is partly pro-Russian,” Markov noted. “The allegations about ties with Moscow are often factually correct.

“However, these perpetrations are personal and they should be proved case by case,” he added. “They cannot be blamed on a religious community of millions of Ukrainians.”

Opinion

Ukraine’s ban targeting Moscow-linked Orthodox Church risks US aid

Zelenskyy is about to test not only Ukraine’s carefully constructed global image but also its own path toward liberal democracy.

An aerial view of the Monastery of the Caves, also known as Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the holiest sites of Eastern Orthodox Christians, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 13, 2020.

 (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

August 21, 2024
By Katherine Kelaidis

(RNS) — On Tuesday (Aug. 20), the Ukrainian Parliament passed long-threatened legislation meant to ban the country’s Moscow-linked Orthodox Church and any faith groups supporting Russia’s invasion. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the bill a “duty” to “guarantee Ukrainian spiritual independence” and is expected to sign it into law soon, launching state intervention into a largely ecclesiastical battle.

In doing so, Zelenskyy is risking Ukraine’s access to Western military aid, especially crucial U.S. aid. Signing the law will give ammunition to the worst slurs of anti-Ukrainian forces in American political life.

The Russian Orthodox Church traces its origins to ninth-century Kyiv, now Ukraine’s capital. The majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, divided between two church bodies: a newer church formed with Ukrainian nationalism and an older church tied to Moscow. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was formed by churches that broke from Russian control during Ukraine’s independence. The jurisdiction was granted autocephaly or independence in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, called “first among equals” among Eastern Orthodox leaders. The recognition dented centuries of Moscow’s religious dominance in Ukraine as parishes switched loyalties, and its legitimacy has been fiercely rejected by Russia’s Patriarch Kirill and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, sparking a deep conflict within global Orthodoxy.

RELATED: Ukrainian Orthodox churches purge vestiges of Russian influence

While the UOC declared itself independent from Moscow three months after Russia’s 2022 invasion, many believe the church remains canonically tied to the Russian Orthodox Church and still harbors loyalty to Russia. Ukraine has prosecuted more than 100 UOC clerics, with charges ranging from anti-Ukrainian speech to espionage.

Charging priests with spying might seem like a groundless attack on members of an unpopular religious group, but the Russian Orthodox Church has a history of weaponizing itself as soft power for the state. There is also evidence that the Russian Orthodox Church is frequently used as an outpost for Russian intelligence efforts. This has led Estonia to pass similar legislation against the church.

The problem is that Ukraine’s legislation skirts the line between addressing a legitimate national security interest and suppressing a religious minority merely for having the taint of the “foreign.” Anyone concerned with freedom of conscience and belief can find legitimate reasons to condemn criminal charges over opinions expressed on social media or from the pulpit, which has been the case of many UOC clerics jailed since the invasion.
RELATED: Ukraine’s Parliament approves ban on Moscow-linked religious groups

Ukraine’s Parliament passed the legislation with a wide margin despite the potential ramifications. The country’s defense efforts rely primarily on the large amounts of military aid it has received from Western nations, mostly from the U.S. In gathering this aid, Ukraine has leaned heavily into a self-image as a newly liberalized democracy, a bulwark against Russian aggression and authoritarianism. It is as a liberal, pluralist democracy that Ukraine has sought not-yet-granted membership in NATO and the European Union.

That this self-narrativizing on the international stage has not been entirely persuasive is never more evident than in how contentious the continuation of American aid to Ukraine remains. Republicans are largely opposed or indifferent to the Ukrainian cause. The Republican nominee for vice president, JD Vance, has even declared he doesn’t care what happens to Ukraine.

Many on the American right do not see Ukraine as a democracy, dedicated to safeguarding liberty at home and abroad, but instead see Ukraine as an authoritarian state in its own right. Before leaving Fox News, right-wing provocateur Tucker Carlson said Zelenskyy was not interested in “freedom or democracy.” Cato Institute fellow Ted Galen Carpenter has called Ukraine a “false democracy.” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has applauded Russia for “protecting Christianity” and described it approvingly in comparison with “secular Ukraine.”

Greene’s comments point to a larger point in the American anti-Ukraine view, built on a belief in Russia’s self-promotion as a protector of Christianity and traditional values. Russian President Vladmir Putin recently advanced the Kremlin’s narrative by simplifying the immigration process to attract foreigners who share Russia’s “traditional values.”

The result of these dueling self-descriptions of Slavic nations is that Russia and Ukraine have become proxies for each side of a divided America. Just as American progressives are perhaps too quick to attribute to Ukraine the pluralism and social progressivism they strive for in the U.S., American conservatives and traditionalists are quick to believe Russia — and in some cases specifically the Russian Orthodox Church — is a bastion of the same traditionalism they hope to defend in America. For them, it makes sense that Russia was forced to go to war with Ukraine to defend it against “pride parades.” They fear (however irrationally) they might be forced into the same war in America.

For these people, Ukrainian efforts to suppress the Moscow-linked UOC are seen as evidence for their belief not only that Ukraine is an anti-democratic, anti-Christian, anti-family state, but moreover that Americans who support Ukraine are these things as well. This is particularly true as Americans are notoriously bad at separating their own internal battles from those abroad. “Religious freedom” is a dog whistle among many American traditionalists. A Ukrainian attack on “religious freedom” will most certainly lose all nuance in their translation of it into the American political landscape.

The truth is that Ukraine finds itself in a nearly impossible situation with respect to the UOC. On paper, at least, the UOC is an independent and fully Ukrainian church. It is also the church of many ordinary Ukrainians, who for whatever reasons (including language, habit, canonical and traditional loyalties) remain part of the besieged jurisdiction. At the same time, nearly everyone knows that the UOC’s independence is shallow at best, perhaps merely window dressing, and that while the UOC has supported Ukrainian soldiers and refugees, at least some UOC clerics are involved in efforts to undermine the Ukrainian cause and promote Russian ideology.

Zelenskyy is about to test not only Ukraine’s carefully constructed global image but also its own path toward liberal democracy. Ukraine’s future remains even more unclear as a result.

(Katie Kelaidis is a research fellow at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England.)

A first for reclaimed Kyiv cathedral: Christmas in Ukrainian

People gather for the Christmas service in the Assumption Cathedral in Lavra, the Monastery of the Caves, Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. Saturday service was conducted by Ukrainian patriarchate for the first time after Lavra had been under Russia's influence for hundreds of years and was subordinated to Russia. 

(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

HANNA ARHIROVA
Sat, January 7, 2023 

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Packing a cathedral for Orthodox Christmas, hundreds of worshippers heard the service in that church in the Ukrainian language for the first time in decades, a demonstration of independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Richly decorated with golden icons and panels, the cathedral — part of the complex known as the Monastery of the Caves and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — put up a video screen outside for the overflow of worshipers, despite the frigid temperatures of -10 Celsius (14 F).

Overlooking the right bank of the Dnieper River, the cathedral and monastery complex has been a pilgrimage site for centuries. And for the first time in the 31 years of Ukraine’s independence, the service there was held in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian army troops in uniform were among those singing well-known Ukrainian carols.

Ukraine's government on Thursday took over the administration of the Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk monastery and allowed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to use it for the Orthodox Christmas service. The move highlights the long-running tensions between the two churches exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.


The cathedral. built about 1,000 years ago then rebuilt in the 1990s after being ruined in World War II, had been under control of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which formerly had ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

“It’s a first victory” for Ukraine, said Oksana Abu-Akel who hailed it as a significant step for Orthodox believers to cut ties with Russia after it started the war more than 10 months ago. “This is the first time in 300 years that there is really our own service here. Every person feels this joy. It is a victory for all Ukrainians.”

Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said Thursday that the cathedral had been taken over by the state after the lease of the Moscow-affiliated church expired on Dec. 31. Tkachenko attended the service Saturday.

“It’s an amazing moment. Previously this place — on Ukrainian territory, within Kyiv — has been linked to Moscow. Now we feel this is ours, this is Ukrainian. This is part of the Ukrainian nation,” said Alex Fesiak, who attended the service.

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Moscow’s and most other Orthodox patriarchs refused to accept that designation that formalized a split with the Russian church.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which remained loyal to the Moscow patriarch since the 17th century, declared independence from Moscow’s Patriarchate after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The UOC gave Moscow a liturgical cold shoulder by dropping the commemoration of Moscow Patriarch Kirill as its leader in public worship and blessing its own sacramental oil rather than use Moscow’s supply.

Metropolitan Epiphanius, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, spoke not just about Christmas but delivered a political message about the war.

“As a nation, we sought to live peacefully, having a good understanding with all our neighbors. But the enemy meanly and treacherously broke the peace and invaded our land, shedding blood, sowing death and wanting to destroy our statehood and our very Ukrainian identity,” he said during the service.

“Those who held us in captivity could not endure our achievements and our success," he said. "The devil’s malice and envy prompted them to make war, but they are sure to be defeated. After all, the truth is on our side.”

Natalia Levshyna said her husband couldn’t come to the Christmas service as he is fighting on the front line, but she will send him photos of the service as it's very important to him. Originally from Donbas, she said she stopped attending the church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported the conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine.

"Our emotions are running high,” she said, barely holding back tears, describing her conviction that the Ukrainian church on Ukrainian soil should be independent from the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Our church must be synchronized with state policy. They must be one,” Levshyna said.

Others in Ukraine have decided to distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church by celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25.

On Friday, the Church of Moscow Patriarchate condemned the Ukrainian plans to hold a service in the Kyiv cathedral as ”an attempt to forcefully seize ... the cathedral by means of blackmail and misinformation of society.”

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, but the Moscow’s patriarch refused to accept that.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared independence from Moscow’s Patriarchate after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, ending the Ukrainian church's loyalty to the Moscow patriarch which dated back to the 17th century. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church removed Moscow Patriarch Kirill as its leader in public worship and now uses its own sacramental oil for blessings rather than oil supplied by Moscow.

But Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the Ukrainian church have maintained close ties with Moscow. They've raided numerous holy sites of the church and later posted photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof that some church officials have been loyal to Moscow.

Prominent Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaders have rejected the allegations of ties with Moscow, insisting that they have loyally supported Ukraine from the start of the war and that a government crackdown will only hand a propaganda coup to Russia.

When Putin says Russia and Ukraine share one faith, he's leaving out a lot of the story

Kathryn David, Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Vanderbilt University
Tue, May 3, 2022, 

A Ukrainian service member takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 10, 2022.

  AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Russian President Vladimir Putin has often asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” He points to a few factors: the Russian language spoken widely in both countries, their similar cultures, and the two countries’ political connections, which date back to medieval times. But there is one more factor that ties all these together: religion.

Grand Prince Volodymyr, leader of the kingdom of Kyiv, converted to Christianity in the 10th century and forced his subjects to do the same. As Putin sees it, Orthodox Christianity established a religious and cultural foundation that outlasted the kingdom itself, creating a shared heritage among the people who live in present-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

As a historian of religion and nationalism in Ukraine and Russia, I see Russia’s invasion as, in part, an attempt to restore this imagined “Russian World.” More than 7 in 10 Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, similar to the percentage in Russia.


But what Putin’s claims ignore is a uniquely Ukrainian religious heritage that transcends church institutions and has long nourished Ukrainians’ sense of nationhood. Many Ukrainians throughout history have seen religion as something that asserts their separateness from Russia, not their commonality.

Kyiv vs. Moscow

Under imperial Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was often a tool of assimilation, with officials eager to use the power of the church to make newly conquered peoples Russian subjects.

Beginning in 1654, when Ukrainian lands were being absorbed into imperial Russia, clergy from Moscow had to decide how to accommodate distinct religious texts, practices and ideas from Kyiv that differed from Moscow’s in subtle yet significant ways. Believing some of the Kyivan practices to be more closely aligned with the Byzantine roots of the Orthodox Church, Russian clergy decided to integrate Ukrainian rituals and priests into the Russian Orthodox Church.

Later, some members of the clergy helped promote the idea of Russian and Ukrainian unity, rooted in Orthodox faith. Yet 19th-century Ukrainian activists took a different view of this history. They saw the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool of empire. In these activists’ view, the church had adopted Ukrainian traditions in the name of spiritual unity while actually denying Ukrainians’ distinct identity.

These nationalist activists did not abandon Orthodox Christianity, however. As they pushed for an autonomous Ukraine, they asserted there was a difference between the politics of the church institution and the everyday religion that foregrounded Ukrainian life.

In the shadow of empire

Not all Ukrainians lived in the spiritual realm of Moscow. A Ukrainian national movement also grew in the west, in former Kyivan lands that ended up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Here many in the population were members of a hybrid religious institution, the Greek Catholic Church, which practiced Orthodox rituals but followed the pope.

Local parishes in the Greek Catholic Church became important in the national movement as religious institutions that distinguished Ukrainians from not only Russian neighbors to the east, but also from the local Polish population in Austria-Hungary. But Ukrainian activists grappled with how to build a nation that was split between these two main faiths: the Russian Orthodox Church and the Greek Catholic Church.

When imperial Russia collapsed in 1917, one of the first acts of the new Ukrainian government formed in Kyiv was declaring its own Orthodox Church, separate from Moscow: the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. The church was intended to use the Ukrainian language and to empower local parishes more than the Russian Orthodox Church had allowed.

As the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrei Sheptytsky, put forward a plan for a unified Ukrainian Church under the Vatican but grounded in Orthodox ritual. He hoped such a church could bring Ukrainians together.

But these plans never materialized. The independent government in Kyiv was defeated by the Bolsheviks by 1921, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church based in Kyiv was banned by the Soviet Union.

Crackdown on ‘nationalist’ prayers

In the first decades of the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks mounted a campaign against religious institutions, especially the Russian Orthodox Church. They viewed Russian Orthodoxy, in particular, as an instrument of the old regime and a potential source of opposition.

During World War II, however, the Soviet Union revived the Russian Orthodox Church, hoping to use it as a tool to promote Russian nationalism at home and abroad.

In western Ukraine, which the Soviet Union annexed from Poland in 1939, this meant forcibly converting 3 million Ukrainian Greek Catholics to Russian Orthodoxy.

Many Ukrainians proved resilient in adapting religious life to these circumstances. Some formed an underground Greek Catholic Church, while others found ways to maintain their traditions despite participating in the Soviet-sanctioned Russian Orthodox Church.

In Soviet secret police records, officers documented what they called “nationalist” practices at church: believers remaining silent when the Moscow patriarch’s name was to be commemorated, for example, or using prayer books that predated Soviet rule.

Thousands of people attend a mass prayer in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv on Oct. 14, 2018, to give thanks after the Orthodox Church in Ukraine gained autocephaly. 

GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images

Hopes for change

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine found itself in a position to redefine the religious landscape. Some Christians became part of the Greek Catholic Church after it was relegalized. Other Christians saw this moment as a time to declare an “autocephalous” Ukrainian church, meaning they would still be in communion with other Orthodox churches around the world, but not under Moscow’s control. Still others wanted to remain part of the Russian Orthodox Church based in Moscow.

In 2019, a Ukrainian Orthodox church was recognized as autocephalous by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodoxy worldwide, forming the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In Ukraine today, only 13% of people say they are affiliated with the Orthodox Church based in Moscow, while 24% follow the Orthodox Church based in Ukraine, and a similar percentage call themselves “simply Orthodox.”

Some Ukrainians have treated the Moscow-based church with suspicion, recognizing its close ties to Putin’s government. Yet it would be a mistake to assume that all who attend this church agree with its politics.

Putin and other leaders in Moscow have their own ideas about Orthodoxy. But in Ukraine, sacred spaces have long been where many Ukrainians fought for, and won, their right to self-determination.


This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Kathryn David, Vanderbilt University.

Read more:

Ukraine’s economy went from Soviet chaos to oligarch domination to vital global trader of wheat and neon – and now Russian devastation


Why is Russia’s church backing Putin’s war? Church-state history gives a clue


Ukraine’s women fighters reflect a cultural tradition of feminist independence

Ukraine War: The role of the Orthodox Churches

About 75% of Russians and 60% of Ukrainians profess to be Orthodox Christians. How are their churches responding to the war?

Patriarch Kyrill (left) has publicly given his support to the war

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is driving a wedge into the Orthodox Church. While the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has justified the war in Moscow, it has been condemned in the Ukrainian Orthodox churches, as well as by some priests in Russia.

"The Moscow Patriarchate had been silent about the war for a long time," explains Thomas Bremer in a video interview with DW. The professor of ecumenical theology, eastern European church studies and peace research at the University of Münster adds that this position has now changed with Patriarch Kirill, who presents Vladimir Putin's war as a legitimate resistance to Western values in his sermons in Moscow.

"He bases this on gay pride parades," explains Bremer, "which he claims were intended to be imposed on the Donbass."

In keeping with Putin's line and in accordance with the president's ban on reporting on the war or even calling it as such, the patriarch also did not use the word "war" for the invasion of Ukraine but spoke of "events" and "military actions."

The independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OKU) is led by Metropolitan Epiphanius

Religious diversity in Ukraine

While the Russian Orthodox Church is the primary church in Russia, Ukraine is characterized by religious diversity. Orthodox Christianity has had a turbulent history in Ukraine, especially since Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Currently, two Orthodox churches exist in Ukraine. One is the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OKU), led by Metropolitan Epiphanius. This church was recognized by Bartholomew I in Istanbul, who is considered the "spiritual leader" of the approximately 260 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

On the other hand, there is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK), which is an autonomous church within the Russian Orthodox Church and has not often expressed itself politically in the past.

What is the position of the Orthodox churches in Ukraine?

Each of the two Orthodox churches in Ukraine has referred to the "war" by name and condemned it emphatically, Bremer said in an interview with DW. He added that while the OKU's reaction was to be expected anyway, even the patriarch of the UOK, which is after all a part of the Russian Orthodox Church, had spoken of an "invasion" of Ukraine on the very first day of the war and called on Putin to end it.

"The synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church even called on the patriarch in Moscow to use his influence on Putin and work for peace," Bremer notes. "But that was left out of the coverage in Russia. The horrors of war are not visible there at all."

Will there be a split in the church?

According to Bremer, the Moscow patriarch's failure to speak out for peace has led to many bishops of the UOK in Ukraine giving instructions to stop mentioning his name in prayer, as is customary. Even in northeastern Ukraine, on the Russian border, that is the case, he says. "In the church, this shows a great movement away from Moscow," Bremer analyzes. The Moscow patriarch has lost the trust of his brethren in Ukraine — and with it many practicing believers in the country, he said. He explained that about 12,000 of 38,000 parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church are in Ukraine and are part of the UOK: that is, almost one-third.

Bartholomew I is the ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox church and its

 approximately 260 million followers

Resistance also stirring in Russian Orthodox Church

In early March, Russian Orthodox clergy and priests published an open letter calling for an end to the war. Written in Russian, the letter reads: "We, the priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church, appeal on our own behalf to all in whose name the fratricidal war in Ukraine will end and call for reconciliation and an immediate ceasefire."

They spoke of the "ordeal to which our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are undeservedly subjected" and referring to the future added, "We are saddened to think of the gulf that our children and grandchildren in Russia and Ukraine will have to bridge to become friends again, to respect and love one another." As of March 8, 2022, 286 priests and deacons have signed the letter.

"This is very courageous," Bremer says of these clerics, who make up a relatively small group out of around 36,000 priests in the Russian Orthodox Church. But they are now being subjected to reprisals and persecution by the Russian authorities and the Federal Secret Service (FSB), Bremer adds.

'Russian Orthodox' as a cultural identity

Professing to being part of the Orthodox Church in Russia can be both a religious as well as cultural affiliation. "There are people in Russia who call themselves Orthodox, but at the same time say they don't believe in God," Bremer explains. "This is also a matter of identity."

Orthodox Christianity is historically closely linked to Russia, the theologian elaborates, and Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of that. In a speech justifying "military actions" in Ukraine, for example, he even referred to the religious dimension when he falsely spoke of Russian Orthodox church members being persecuted in Ukraine.

Both Orthodox churches in Ukraine have rejected this narrative. What impact the war would have on the Orthodox Church, Bremer said, would depend on its further course — and who would win the war. Should Russia take Ukraine, it would mean the end of the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Churches (UOK), he predicts.

But the Russian Orthodox Church would already have lost many believers in Ukraine, and perhaps also some in Russia.

This article was originally written in German.

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for RUSSIAN ORTHODOX 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX