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Mark Woods
Christian Today Contributing Editor
Russian military intervention in Ukraine, including annexing the
Crimea and supporting separatists in the east of the country, has
poisoned relationships between the two states and outraged international
opinion.
Originating from Russian fears about Ukraine's perceived pivot
to the West, there are no signs of the situation being resolved.
However, the Orthodox Church in Russia and Ukraine is deeply involved in
national affairs, and is fighting its own territorial battles alongside
those fought by soldiers and diplomats. The stakes for national pride
and long-term harmony are just as high. Now, a move by Ukrainian
politicians to enlist the support of the Orthodox world's premier
patriarch has raised the stakes very considerably.
Are you perhaps over-dramatising a little? What exactly has happened?
Not in the least. According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine,
two former presidents of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk and Viktor
Yushchenko, have presented Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a
5,000-signature petition asking him to grant independent or
"autocephalous" status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This follows a
previous vote in the Ukrainian Parliament back in June to approach him.
But what' s it got to do with Russia?
The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is technically under the jurisdiction
of the Russian Orthodox Church, though it has a large amount of
autonomy. There was an act in 1686 that subordinated Kiev to Moscow, and
that's what Ukraine's Parliament wants Bartholomew to revoke.
Still not sure why it's such a thing.
In the old days of the USSR this subordination wasn't so much of a
problem. But Ukrainian independence and particularly recent Russian
aggression have led to increasing dissatisfaction with the current
situation. There's even a social media hashtag that translates as
"#occupier'schurch" to refer to the ROC. As one commentator, Kiev
Metropolis Vicar Okeksandr Drabynko says: "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church
is no longer perceived as a local church body. No matter whether we
like it or not, in the eyes of a significant part (if not the most part)
of modern Ukrainian society we have become a 'church of the aggressor
state'."
So while most Ukrainian Orthodox believers adhere – many of them
grudgingly – to the 'Moscow Patriarchate' of the UOC, there's a
breakaway 'Kiev Patriarchate' which wants the UOC to be a separate
national Orthodox Church. The logic is that Ukrainians, who bitterly
resent Moscow's treatment of their country, just don't want to go to
Russian-dominated churches.
This all seems very reasonable. It's all about the gospel, after all.
In a perfect world, no doubt. But there isn't the proverbial cat in
hell's chance that the ROC is going to let the UOC go independent.
Patriarch Kirill strongly believes Ukraine is part of his 'canonical
territory'. The ROC is big, rich and powerful, and he's not going to let
any of that go. But there's also a historical force behind this
reluctance: Ukraine is where Russian Orthodoxy first began, and there's a
deep attachment to the territory because of it. Aside from these
religious reasons, however, there's more of a nationalistic one: with
Ukraine and Russia at each other's throats, Kirill has to tough it out.
So where does Bartholomew come in?
He is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the oldest and most
prestigious of all the Orthodox Churches, and first among equals among
all the 14 autocephalous patriarchs. The Ukrainians are effectively
appealing to him over Patriarch Kirill's head.
That would go down well, I imagine.
Since we're doing proverbs, the lead balloon springs to mind. The ROC
is engaged in a power play with the Ecumenical Patriarch, whose native
flock in Turkey is tiny. Some in the ROC think its day is done, and that
the Orthodox future is Russian. That is what lay behind its sabotaging
of the Pan Orthodox Council by withdrawing at the last minute.
So this is a particular problem for Bartholomew?
Yes, and he will want to be very careful about how he responds to it.
In the Orthodox world, unity – and particularly unity in national
territorities – is terribly important, and no one is really happy with
the situation as it is at the moment. But the ROC is very powerful, and
he will want to avoid offending it as far as he can. The restoration of
Estonia's autocephalous status in 1996 resulted in the breakdown of
relations between Moscow and the Ecumenical Patriarchy for two years;
this would be much, much worse.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods