Russian & Ukraine Orthodox churches separate, Putin's War
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After supporting Ukraine invasion, Russia's Patriarch Kirill criticized worldwide
Jonathan Luxmoore | Mar 15, 2022
...The (2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) followed a low-intensity conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region after Moscow's February 2014 forced annexation of Crimea, which left over 14,000 dead in eight years.
It also came in the wake of bitter religious disputes in Ukraine, where a new Orthodox church was granted independence in January 2019 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Constantinople), who holds honorary primacy among leaders of the world's 15 main Orthodox churches.
Russia's Moscow Patriarchate bitterly rejected the move, insisting Ukraine, independent from Russia since December 1991, belonged to its "canonical territory."
It severed ties with Bartholomew, doing the same later with Orthodox leaders from Greece, Cyprus and Alexandria when they recognized the new church.
In December, Moscow went a step further, and set up two dioceses of its own in Africa, which traditionally comes under the jurisdiction of Alexandria's patriarch, Theodore II, to take in Orthodox priests and parishes unhappy about Theodore's "schismatic behavior."
At least 160 Orthodox parishes in a dozen countries, and some Protestant communities too, have asked to join the new Russian dioceses, lured by promises of material aid and study opportunities, as well as protection by Russian military forces.
And while some Orthodox leaders have accepted the Russian move as a justified response to the Ukrainian church dispute, others have accused the Moscow Patriarchate of using the dispute as pretext for a long-planned expansion.
Whatever its parameters, the bitter church dispute provided a religious backdrop to Russia's invasion. It was referred to in a fateful Feb. 21 TV address by Putin, in which he denied Ukraine's statehood and insisted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government was "infringing on believers' rights" and "preparing the destruction" of Ukraine's Moscow-linked church.
Kirill duly responded, lauding the president's "high and responsible service to the people" in a Moscow speech hours before the invasion, and assuring Russia's armed forces they should have "no doubts they have chosen a very correct path."
Although Kirill has since urged peace, he hasn't criticized Russia's missile strikes and artillery barrages, which had leveled whole areas and driven over 2.5 million Ukrainians abroad by March 11, according to the United Nations.
Although Kirill has since urged peace, he hasn't criticized Russia's missile strikes and artillery barrages, which had leveled whole areas and driven over 2.5 million Ukrainians abroad by March 11, according to the United Nations.
...In a sign of the Russian church's growing isolation, theologians from the Czech Republic to Greece have called for its expulsion from the World Council of Churches for "violating the fundamental values of Christianity," while Switzerland's University of Fribourg confirmed on March 8 it had suspended Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the Moscow Patriarchate's foreign relations director, from his theology faculty professorship...
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/after-supporting-ukraine-invasion-russias-p...
Jonathan Luxmoore | Mar 15, 2022
...The (2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) followed a low-intensity conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region after Moscow's February 2014 forced annexation of Crimea, which left over 14,000 dead in eight years.
It also came in the wake of bitter religious disputes in Ukraine, where a new Orthodox church was granted independence in January 2019 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Constantinople), who holds honorary primacy among leaders of the world's 15 main Orthodox churches.
Russia's Moscow Patriarchate bitterly rejected the move, insisting Ukraine, independent from Russia since December 1991, belonged to its "canonical territory."
It severed ties with Bartholomew, doing the same later with Orthodox leaders from Greece, Cyprus and Alexandria when they recognized the new church.
In December, Moscow went a step further, and set up two dioceses of its own in Africa, which traditionally comes under the jurisdiction of Alexandria's patriarch, Theodore II, to take in Orthodox priests and parishes unhappy about Theodore's "schismatic behavior."
At least 160 Orthodox parishes in a dozen countries, and some Protestant communities too, have asked to join the new Russian dioceses, lured by promises of material aid and study opportunities, as well as protection by Russian military forces.
And while some Orthodox leaders have accepted the Russian move as a justified response to the Ukrainian church dispute, others have accused the Moscow Patriarchate of using the dispute as pretext for a long-planned expansion.
Whatever its parameters, the bitter church dispute provided a religious backdrop to Russia's invasion. It was referred to in a fateful Feb. 21 TV address by Putin, in which he denied Ukraine's statehood and insisted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government was "infringing on believers' rights" and "preparing the destruction" of Ukraine's Moscow-linked church.
Kirill duly responded, lauding the president's "high and responsible service to the people" in a Moscow speech hours before the invasion, and assuring Russia's armed forces they should have "no doubts they have chosen a very correct path."
Although Kirill has since urged peace, he hasn't criticized Russia's missile strikes and artillery barrages, which had leveled whole areas and driven over 2.5 million Ukrainians abroad by March 11, according to the United Nations.
Although Kirill has since urged peace, he hasn't criticized Russia's missile strikes and artillery barrages, which had leveled whole areas and driven over 2.5 million Ukrainians abroad by March 11, according to the United Nations.
...In a sign of the Russian church's growing isolation, theologians from the Czech Republic to Greece have called for its expulsion from the World Council of Churches for "violating the fundamental values of Christianity," while Switzerland's University of Fribourg confirmed on March 8 it had suspended Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the Moscow Patriarchate's foreign relations director, from his theology faculty professorship...
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/after-supporting-ukraine-invasion-russias-p...
