www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Article about Ukraine, Bartholomew, etc.

I came across this article from the National Review and wanted to know what people think of it, especially (but not exclusively) those with ties to the Ukraine.


April 15, 2005, 7:58 a.m.
An Unorthodox Orthodoxy
Eastern churches should break with Moscow.

By Zeyno Baran & Emmet Tuohy

In Washington last week, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko received a hero�s welcome as he concluded a new strategic partnership with the United States and gave a historic address to a joint session of Congress. Throughout his visit, especially during talks with President George W. Bush, Yushchenko adhered to his main theme: the commitment of both countries to democratic values. While they discussed numerous issues of common concern, there was one item conspicuous by its absence from the agenda: religion. In Ukraine � and elsewhere in the Orthodox world � a struggle for freedom and independence is still being waged against the Russian Orthodox Church.


In his controversial book The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington identified a fundamental divide between the areas represented by Catholicism and Protestantism in the West, and the Orthodox Church in the East. As recent events have shown, however, a more correct line can be drawn, with the Russian Orthodox Church representing the authoritarian status quo on one side, and the rest of Europe � including the other Orthodox traditions � representing freedom and democracy on the other.

During the recent democratic revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, the local branches of the Orthodox Church acted in full concordance with liberal democratic values, supporting the desire of people in these countries for political freedoms. However, they were resisted at every turn by the nationalistic Russian Orthodox Church, which is tightly tied to a Russian state that is still trying to reassert control over its former dominions.

Though not widely known, the structure of the Orthodox Church is highly conducive to local, responsive decision-making. Since the famous 1054 split with Roman Catholicism, the Ecumenical Patriarch (who has continued to reside in Constantinople/Istanbul over the intervening millennium) enjoys only a primus inter pares relationship with the autonomous patriarchs of individual countries. Over time, each national Orthodox Church thus became closely tied to the needs and desires of their people. However, as Ottoman political control receded over the 19th century, the influence of the Russian Patriarchate grew in keeping with the expansion of Tsarist and later Soviet power. While many churches were able to regain effective independence during the widespread clamoring for freedom that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall, pro-Russian elements have resisted such efforts.

In contrast, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, based in Istanbul, has acted as the leading voice in favor of freedom and democracy in the Orthodox world. A prominent promoter of interfaith ties and environmental issues (he has, somewhat unusually, been labeled �the green patriarch�), Bartholomew I has taken a special interest in the anti-authoritarian movement that has steadily gained steam in Orthodox countries over the last two decades. Standing at the center of coordination among all the Orthodox, he strongly supported the independence of the church in Estonia, which led to a major split within the Orthodox Church (between Russian and Greek churches). Today he is the key to the independence of the Georgian and Ukrainian churches, as well.

In Georgia, when the pro-reform movement took off in 2003, the independent Georgian Orthodox Church supported Mikheil Saakashvili, the young democratic reformer who successfully attained the presidency of the Georgian state. The Russian Church, however, has continued to oppose Saakashvili and his reforms, most notably by encouraging the separatists in Georgia�s Abkhazia region to unite their church with the Moscow Patriarchate. (The Russian church is also supporting the criminal separatist regime in Moldova�s breakaway region of Transnistria).

In Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), joined with Uniate Catholics, who practice the Orthodox rite but profess loyalty to the pope, as well as with evangelical Protestants, in supporting the Ukrainian people�s right to a free electoral choice. These churches were instrumental in inspiring and assisting the throngs of Ukrainians who took to the streets last year to protest election fraud, protests which ultimately led to the recognition of the victory of reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko in the presidential elections. Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church threw its full weight behind government candidate Viktor Yanukovych in a propaganda campaign that included the lending of icons to anti-Yushchenko marches and the dissemination of anti-Yushchenko leaflets at church services.

In the aftermath of Ukraine�s peaceful revolution, there have been calls for unification of the two branches; at a special sobor (assembly), the UOC-KP asked Yushchenko and Bartholomew I for their assistance in ending the division and providing true independence for Ukraine � politically and theologically. During a recent visit to Kyiv, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the well-known position of the Moscow Patriarchate, which would allow the unification of the Ukrainian churches only if they continued in �canonical unity� with the Moscow Patriarchate, which means continued influence not only from the church leadership, but from the Russian government.

However, there is to be no exterminating the freedom bug caught by nearly the entire Orthodox movement. If the Moscow Patriarchate continues to support repressive regimes and separatist regions throughout the former Soviet Union, it will only add to its increasing isolation from a �Western civilization� that now extends to the borders of Russia.

� Zeyno Baran is director of the international-security and energy Programs at the Nixon Center, where Emmet Tuohy is a research associate.

There is no doubt that the Russian Orthodox Church is having difficulties adjusting to being a Church in post-communist Russia. The effects of seventy years of persecution and oppression are still quite evident. Prior to communism the Russian Orthodox Church was the state Church. During the communist era it was also the state Church, but was totally controlled by the atheistic communists. That is a lot to recover from. It will probably take one or more generations before Russian Orthodoxy adjusts to functioning in a society where it must present the Gospel in the marketplace of ideas, one in which people may freely choose or reject it.

It may take a few more years, but I have no doubt that the Russian Orthodox Church will grant full independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. When that happens the 3 Ukrainian Orthodox Churches will merge and be in communion with Constantinople and Moscow. As the old saying goes �Rome was not built in a day.� Likewise, it will take generations to heal the damage inflicted by the communists upon all the peoples who were under their power.

Dear Administrator,

The other model of unity that seems to be emerging is that the Ukrainian Orthodox branches, deemed uncanonical by the Russian Church, will merge and seek a separate settlement with Constantinople.

And there is every indication that the new government will assist in helping to realize this - just as the government in Russia has always "been there" for the Russian Church.

The "Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate" is the Russian Church under a new name that reflects new political realities.

Let's remember that Soviet communism was Russian imperialism under a different term.

The "Soviet man" was culturally Russian, he spoke Russian and in every which way, save religious, he was "Russian."

The Russian imperial ideology of dominance over other nationalities, as conducted under the Tsars, continued under the Soviet Russian communists.

The Baltic States have repeatedly refused to allow the ROC to rename itself by accepting the national names of the states.

That Ukraine allowed it to do this was part of the pro-Russian approach of the former government.

There will never be agreement on "canonical unity" with Moscow where such unity really means subservience to the Moscow Patriarchate with a Kyivan Exarch (and not a "Patriarch") under him.

Moscow never will grant autocephaly to Ukraine, as it considers it its backyard and foundation upon which its patriarchy rests.

Alex

Alex,

It is just my opinion but I think it highly unlikely that the branches of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine will merge and seek a separate settlement with Constantinople. If Constantinople did this then the Russian Orthodox Church will suspend communion with Constantinople. No, the only way forward is for the Moscow Patriarchate to come to realize that Ukraine deserves total canonical independence from Moscow. It will not happen in a year or two. But perhaps it will happen with the next Patriarch of Moscow. It certainly won�t happen without prayer.

Lets pray that the Lord God will lead all of the bishops and patriarchs of the world to do what He wishes.

Admin

Dear Administrator,

Well, I'm not suggesting that Moscow will risk a rift.

There seems to be a concerted leadership in the move to unify the Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine and the EP seems to be, for the first time, on side with the Ukes - that surely means that the Ukr. government is involved and is pushing for this.

There will be little the UOC-MP could do once the momentum develops here but to go along in some way.

It will not, in my opinion, be a spontaneous, evolutionary process.

Although every PR effort will be made to show it as such!

Alex

Alex,

If spontaneously means �instantly� and evolutionary means �over eons� (or at least �a very long time�) then I suppose that you mean that Moscow will grant total independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine sometime between now and the Second Coming. You are likely to be very accurate with such a prediction.

Admin

The following was written by the Administrator:
> ... I suppose that you mean that Moscow will
> grant total independence to the Orthodox Church
> in Ukraine sometime between now and the Second
> Coming. You are likely to be very accurate with
> such a prediction.

You seem to be assuming that the Second Coming is far in the future; it may be, but it could be any moment now.

Photius

You are, of course, quite right. The Second Coming could be at any moment and each of us should be always be prepared for we know neither the day nor the hour. Still, it seems like a very long wait and I certainly have much sin to repent of in the time ahead.

I do pray and hope that the situation in Ukraine is resolved quickly. I also pray daily that the schism be resolved so that East and West can again partake of the same Chalice.

The following was posted by the Administrator:
> ... The Second Coming could be at any moment
> and each of us should be always be prepared for
> we know neither the day nor the hour.

True! Personally, I think in terms of not knowing the day or the hour of my death, although, actually, the object we don't know is whichever happens sooner, the Second Coming or our death.

> I do pray and hope that the situation in
> Ukraine is resolved quickly.

As do I. However, I am abstaining from sharing my many thoughts on the matter for fear of ticking off someon other member's nationalistic, political, or ecclesiastical sensibilities; my time typing here is better spent on things that are less controversial.

{hotius

Dear Photius,

As always, you are the consummate diplomat!

I don't doubt that we would disagree on this subject, perhaps we wouldn't.

The point is that you are a consummate diplomat.

Alex

Dear Administrator,

The only point I would like to make here, and I could be wrong, but I think time will prove me to be absolutely right, is that non-religious forces are at work to resolve the bad Orthodox situation in Ukraine right now.

Just as non-religious forces were at work to create that situation in the first place . . .

Habemus Papam!

Alex