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EURASIA Prelude to Religious Conflict in ?

OE Watch Commentary: The conflict between pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region and Ukrainian forces continues to fester, and as the accompanying excerpt from the Russian news agency TASS suggests, it could soon expand into a more complex, violent, religious struggle. A significant portion of the Ukrainian population adheres to the Orthodox faith. Due to historical circumstances, however, the Orthodox in Ukraine has been divided, broadly speaking, between those who pay allegiance to the and those who favor greater . As relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated over the past four years, movement toward creating a fully independent (autocephalous) Ukrainian has grown.

To become independent, Ukrainian authorities have appealed to the President Putin meets with members of Holy of Ukrainian Orthodox Ecumenical Church of , and as the article points out, Church of Moscow Patriarchate, (2013). Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/18960 CC BY 4.0. it appears that this body appears ready to “grant to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” Understandably, the (ROC), “which has about 12,000 and 200 on the territory of the country” is adamantly opposed to such a move. Citing a chief ROC cleric, the article warns “that steps to authorize autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have catastrophic consequences, including violence and seizure of churches belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reporting to Moscow Patriarchate.” End OE Watch Commentary (Finch)

“The chief of Moscow Patriarchate’s department for relations between the Church and society, Legoida, warned that steps to authorize autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church may have catastrophic consequences….”

Source: “Ukrainian autocephaly to have ‘catastrophic’ consequences — Russian Orthodox Church,” TASS, 12 September 2018. http://tass.com/ society/1021115 The chief of Moscow Patriarchate’s department for relations between the Church and society, Vladimir Legoida, warned that steps to authorize autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church may have catastrophic consequences, including violence and seizure of churches belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reporting to Moscow Patriarchate. “I think that parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not recognize the authority of the Kiev Patriarchate on their own free will, and this may provoke violence on behalf of the schismatics,” Legoida said. He added that “more than 40 churches” belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have already been seized by the Kiev Patriarchate. “Developments of this kind will have truly dramatic or even catastrophic consequences, because our Ukrainian brothers have already found themselves in a difficult situation,” he said, adding that if autocephaly will be granted to the Kiev Patriarchate, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be subjected to “more pressure on the part of the nationalists and on the part of the state.” …At present, Ukraine is part of the of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, recognized by the global community of Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches, reports to Moscow Patriarchate. It is a self-governing religious organization with broad administrative powers, which has about 12,000 parishes and 200 monasteries on the territory of the country. Simultaneously, Ukraine has another two organizations referring to themselves as Orthodox Churches - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to the so-called Kiev patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church that draws on the ideology and practices of a religious movement that reformist nationalistic Ukrainian set up in the first half of the 20th century. …In April 2018, President Pyotr Poroshenko sent a petition to the Ecumenical Bartholomew I, asking him to authorize the emergence of an independent united Orthodox Church in Ukraine. of the two schismatic Churches hailed his motion while the canonical Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate did not make any requests on its part. The secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Church of Constantinople published a communique last Friday, September 7, reporting the appointment of Daniel of Pamphilon and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton as exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch to Ukraine as a step towards preparations for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The of the Russian Church issued a protest on Saturday saying Constantinople’s decision was driving relations between the two into an impasse.

OE Watch | October 2018 26