Dear AMM,
In fact, the UGCC and UOC-KP pose a direct threat to the MP's religious-cultural hegemony in Ukraine because they all share the same religious heritage and tradition.
The destruction of the UGCC by the Soviet forces working through the ROC in 1946 is tacitly affirmed by the ROC today because the context of that ecclesial absorption is that of "righting the wrong" of the "Polish-imposed Unia" of 1596.
In fact, the Kyivan Orthodox Metropolia of the 16th century was a separate jurisdiction from the "Muscovites" so in 1946, were the Russian Orthodox interested in "righting history" (please excuse me for using the "H" word!
), the ROC would have done the completely unlikely thing of restoring an autocephalous Kyivan Orthodox Metropolia and THEN forced the UGCC to join it . . .
Today the UOC-KP and UGCC compete for resources with the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and there is open ideological warfare grounded in both religious and national contexts.
That's the way it always was, it's the way it is now and there's no indication that things will change in the near future.
As in any real war, one side will win over the other when one of the sides realize their situation has become untenable.
Alex
