THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH A POWERFUL PEACE ACTOR (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Ukrainian National Church, Religious Diplomacy and the Conflict in Donbas
Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, 2020
The article analyses political mobilisation towards the establishment of an independent Ukrainian national church. Ukraine had three Orthodox churches, the largest of which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, while the others lacked ecclesiastical legitimacy. On 11 October 2018, in a dramatic decision with geopolitical consequences, the Kyiv Patriarchate received ecclesiastical recognition from the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate. Drawing on 16 interviews with key clergy, academics and policy practitioners working on church-state relations in Kyiv, a literature review, and online data from Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian sources, the article argues that the conflict in Donbas has been a key factor in the national and international mobilisation towards autocephaly. This article demonstrates that in Eastern Orthodoxy, churches perform state-like functions in three areas, namely establishing diplomatic channels of communication; mobilising the faithful at national and international levels; and advancing human security discourses on violence, survival and tolerance.
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 2022
The relevance of the study is provided by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, more specifically, the hybrid nature of the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014. The use of information technologies along with military force, among other things, provides for the involvement of the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate as an additional tool for the spread of destructive ideological influence in Ukraine. Attention to the non-religious influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) on Ukrainian society is being updated against the background of the ideological confrontation between the Russian and Ukrainian worldview systems in the religious plane. The article presents the factors initiating the distribution of the Orthodox Patriarchate in independent Ukraine, highlights the elements of fundamental differences for Ukraine between the Orthodox Church of the Ukraine (OCU) and the UOC-MP, and considers the actual ways to eliminate problems associated with the functioning of the UOC-MP in Ukraine during the current Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition, some facts of collaborationism carried out by representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea and the territories of Donbass since 2014 have been studied. A parallel is drawn between the facts of cooperation with the invaders during the full-scale war of 2022 and the statements of Russian priests who give a public assessment of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
Przegląd Zachodni, Journal of the Institute of Western Affairs in Poznań, Special Issue, 2019
The aim of the article is to analyse the place and importance of the Orthodox Church in the society and political culture of Ukraine after 2013. The new political realities following the Revolu-tion of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas created new challenges for the Or-thodox Church in Ukraine. Particularly important is the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church’s authority over the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.At the turn of 2018 and 2019, by a decision of Patriarch Bartholomew I and with the support of the Ukrainian political authorities, a new reality became fact in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. However, the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (as a metropolis) does not mean that the split has been overcome. There will be two hostile, equal and comparably strong structures in Ukraine, politically backed by Ukraine and Russia, and this will draw those countries into conflicts over their religious structures and the wealth that their communities possess. At this stage, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will rely primarily on the potential of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, and this fact in turn will hinder the transfer of bishops and priests associated with the Moscow Patriarchate. The rift will be difficult to repair.
2023
This article shows how war is restructuring the configuration of religious life in Ukraine as a result of Russia's full-scale invasion. Following a short introduction, which documents churches' initial reactions to the war, I focus on three issues. First, I examine the ways in which the war exacerbates existing tensions within Ukrainian Orthodoxy, echoing the divide within world Orthodoxy. Second, I analyse the challenges faced by Ukrainian Catholics in relation to the Holy See's position on the war, which is marked by neutrality and a propensity towards nonviolence. Third, I delineate a few trajectories, which could allow churches to be more proactive in playing a role in peacemaking and future reconciliation.
STATE-CHURCH RELATIONS IN UKRAINE: CURRENT STATE, PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT
MORAVČÍKOVÁ, M. (ed.) 2018. Vzťahy štátu a cirkví a náboženské menšiny: Zborník zo sekcie „Vzťahy štátu a cirkví a náboženské menšiny“ medzinárodného vedeckého kongresu Trnavské právnické dni, ktorý sa konal 20. – 21. septembra 2018.
The article deals with the issues of the relationship between the state and the Orthodox churches in Ukraine. The author briefly analyzes the current state of state and church relations in the preparatory period of provision the Tomos of autocephaly in the future of the United Orthodox Church in Ukraine from The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the reaction to this process of other Orthodox churches, among which in Ukraine is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church being in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, and in the world – other local Orthodox churches that have already expressed their vision on this process. The author tries to distinguish the tasks that will arise behind Ukrainian lawyers after provision the Tomos and in connection with the declared state re-registration of all Orthodox religious organizations in Ukraine.
'"Project Ukraine" under Threat - Christian Churches in Ukraine and their Relations 1991-2015
in Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 67, 2015, no. 1-2, pp. 103-142: In its first part, this article tries to systematize information about religious life and societal activities of Christian communities, mainly the Eastern rite churches in Ukraine since Ukrainian independence in 1991. What emerges from this attempt is a picture consisting of manifold initiatives to bridge and overcome old antagonisms formerly vigorously active in a borderland society, starting from grassroots ecumenism, inclusive approaches towards religiosity, up to conciliatory historical narratives and joint socio-political organizations. This “project Ukraine” in various respects came under threat since the outbreak of the Maidan protests in November 2013, and the crisis that followed. The second part of the article therefore analyses further developments up to June 2015, and tries to explore the prospects of the named “project” and its potential for de-escalation and peace-building.
Russian Church and Ukrainian War
The Expository Times, 2022
The war in Ukraine that began in February 2014 and escalated in February 2022 to the extent unseen in Europe since the World War II, cannot be adequately comprehended without taking into consideration its religious dimension. This article explores the evolution of the “Russian world” ideology, which the leaders and speakers of the Russian Orthodox Church render in quasi-theological terms. It explains why the Russian patriarch Kirill decided to back it and turned it from an elitist to mass ideologeme. These explanations are given in the sociological framework of the public space, social contract, and civil religion. The main argument of the article is that the church wanted to regain for itself a central place in the Russian public square after the decades of exile from it under the Communist regime. In result of supporting the war, however, the church is endangered to be marginalised in this square again.
The decline of the communist regime in the late 1980s stimulated decentralizing processes within the Russian Orthodox Church; a final result being the emergence of Eastern Christian Churches in independent Ukraine: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Throughout the next two and a half decades the Ukrainian religious landscape has been simultaneously characterized by sharp conflicts and a search for ways of peaceful coexistence between various confessions; ecumenical initiatives, and asserting one’s “canonicity” against the “schismatic” others; attempts by some Churches to act as civil agencies and national institutions; attempts by the state under President Yanukovych to revive a “state” Church following the Russian model; moves towards a Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church and also towards “Russkii mir” (The Russian World). Crucial issues are — the Churches’ search for their place in the post-Soviet Ukrainian realm and their choices of models for coexistence with Ukrainian officialdom and society. In its approach the article provides a general profile of each Church, examines state policies towards religion and the Church in independent Ukraine, and describes a turning point, that being the Revolution of Dignity’s deep influence on the Churches’ perceptions of themselves and their place in Ukrainian life. Key Words: Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ukrainian society, state-church relations.
Crisis in Ukraine: Brewing Religious Conflict
One important security challenge which is heavily underestimated in Europe –by both optimists and pessimists in relation to Ukraine – is the extremely serious role of the Church and ecclesiastical politics. The EU focus on reforms and conflict in the Donbas is crucial. However, there is a new clash emerging within Ukrainian society – a conflict between believers of the pro-independence Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), and of the ‘pro-Russian’ Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). MP controls a major part of the ecclesiastical infrastructure (parishes, holy places, monasteries, pilgrimages sites), but it has been losing both believers and its high moral ground; it is often accused of collaboration with, or support for, the aggressor – Russia. The Kyiv Patriarchate is economically less powerful than its Moscow counterpart, but its congregation is growing and the OCKP claims a higher moral ground as the national- patriotic Church. A number of nationally-minded priests have departed from the Moscow Patriarchate, together with many believers. Some parishioners exerted pressure on their local clergy to take sides in this conflict. The situation has been aggravated by the dogmatic attitude of the Moscow Patriarchate in relation to the sensitivities and sacrifices of the Ukrainian people (for example, a refusal to discharge burial services for officers and soldiers fallen in the Donbas). Even though ecclesiastical elites on both sides may not be as radical and conflict-prone as it might seem, it is possible that the situation on the ground can provoke violence and spark yet another conflict, which would be truly intra-Ukrainian and with a highly pronounced religious dimension. Unlike to war in Donbas, this type of conflict would be far less manageable and amenable to rational bargaining and negotiations. It can lead to a fragmentation of political space, the rise of radical far-right conservative politics and large- scale violence and chaos. The EU should be aware that in addition to post-modern liberal values, it still has to accommodate the significant cultural foundations of European Civilization such as Christianity, which can constitute a vast reservoir of soft power. The EU should invite the major Christian Orthodox Churches of Europe, the moral authorities of the Christian Church, and their spiritual leader, the Oecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, to organise a round-table to resolve religious disagreements in Ukraine. Negotiations should be conducted concerning the joint use of and/or access to ecclesiastical property. The Ukrainian government should take firmer control of access to public services and/or use of public lands – a valuable asset to which MPs have enjoyed privileged access in recent years.