Paul
Goble
Staunton, October 2 – The Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate backs Ukraine’s decision to pursue
closer ties with the European Union even at the expense of links with Moscow,
yet another indication of how deep Ukraine’s commitment to Europe is and how
Patriarch Kirill is alienating Orthodox leaders outside of the Russian
Federation.
On Monday, Patriarch Filaret of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Metropolitan Vladimir of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Supreme
Archbishop Svyatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, along with other
Ukrainian religious leaders, issued an appeal to the Ukrainian people
supporting Ukraine’s European choice (iarex.ru/news/41699.html
and portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=20624).
“From ancient times, the Ukrainian
people has been part of the European civilizational space,” the appeal says,
and as part of Europe, “our social and government live has been constructed in
connection with Europe and its spiritual, cultural, educational and legal
traditions. Now, Ukraine stands before a choice of its further development. In
our opinion,” the Ukrainian churchmen say, “the future of Ukraine as naturally
conditioned by our historical roots is to be an independent state among the
free European peoples.”
They say they are “convinced that
this is not and cannot be considered a form of opposition by Ukraine to our
historical neighbor, Russia. For its statehood,
history and culture are also closely linked with Europe. Let us hope the
Russian people and government will recognize and respect the right of Ukraine
as an independent state to choose its own path to the future just as Ukraine
recognizes and respects the independence and sovereignty of the Russian
Federation.”
For the leader of what the Moscow
patriarchate views as a branch of its own church and one that the current
patriarchate has often presented as the basis for the re-unification of Russia
and its Slavic neighbors, including Ukraine, to say this both reflects the
depth of Ukraine’s commitment to Europe and anger at Moscow and its church for
their opposition.
As such, it constitutes at a minimum
a stinging rebuke to Patriarch Kirill and his support for the idea of the
continuing relevance of “’Holy Rus’” and calls into question his role as a
co-author and executor of Vladimir Putin’s push to draw the former Soviet
republics into a tighter union with Moscow.
And over the longer term, the appearance
of such attitudes among the Orthodox in Ukraine who have remained part of the
Russian church up to now may even point to a split with Moscow and ultimately
the formation of a broader autocephalous Orthodox church in Ukraine that would
include the various Orthodox hierarchies there.
An article in today’s “NG-Religii”
by culturologist Roman Bagdasarov suggests that such possibilities are rooted
in Kirill’s “combination of ‘Russianness’ and Orthodoxy,” a combination that
when pushed as far as he does is both isolationist and offensive to other Orthodox
peoples, including Ukrainians (ng.ru/facts/2013-10-02/6_patriarhat.html).
The Russian Orthodox conception of
Russia as a “god-bearing people” is inevitably “an isolating force,” one that
makes it extremely difficult for Moscow to present itself as an attractive
option to others, Bagdasarov says. The
USSR, he notes, was successful internationally precisely because it did not
advertise that view but rather presented itself as an internationalist
enterprise.
But “the strengthening of Russian
Orthodoxy [over the last decade] has been accompanied by the growth of
isolationist attitudes in society and authoritarianism in the government.
Today, the Russian Orthodox Church has become” the chief arbiter and defender
of “’Russianness’ as a chauvinist
ideology,” something that inevitably offends others.
Bagdasarov adds that historically, “Russian
Orthodox identity has allowed for only two statuses – it can be in a position
of ‘domination’ or it can be ‘persecuted.’ But both the one and the other
differ with the legal nature of the Russian Federation, which
[constitutionally] is a secular and multi-national state.”
“These qualities of [the Russian]
state do not satisfy those who are accustomed to use the ‘God-bearing people’
archetype,” the scholar says. “The pretensions of Russian Orthodoxy to
ideological rule must thus be driven out of any public discussions just as were
at one time driven out discussions of the utility of a fascist dictatorship or
the benefits of racism.”
The actions of the Orthodox
churchmen in Ukraine underscore why this is important for Russia not only for
the successful development of its own country but also for the development of
good relations with those of its neighbors many in Moscow have not yet truly
accepted as fully independent.
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