Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 23 – The Moscow
Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church routinely says that it has more
parishes in Ukraine than does the Kyiv Patriarchate, a statement that it true
but that ignores the fact that it has far fewer followers and parishioners than
does the Ukrainian church.
Archhbishop Yevstraty Zoyra, the
secretary of the Holy Synod of the Kyiv Patriarchate, points out to Russian
specialist on religion Roman Popkov that there is “a lack of correspondence
between the number of registered communities of the two patriarchates and the
real quantity of [their] supporters” (openrussia.org/notes/709710/).
For historical reasons, there are
“more than 10,000 communities” registered with the state as subordinate to the
Moscow Patriarchate,” the churchman says, while the number of communities
attached to the Kyiv Patriarchate are only about half as many. But those
statistics don’t tell the real story.
“Invoking these statistics,”
Archbishop Yevstraty says, “the Moscow Patriarchate asserts that it is ‘the
largest church in Ukraine.’” But that is
“in part untrue.” It is the case that
there are 10,000 “registered” parishes but “a certain part of these communities
exist only on paper and are ‘dead souls.’”
The parishes loyal to the Kyiv
Patriarchate are more active and larger than the Moscow ones, he continues, a
reflection of the fact that Ukrainians identify with the former rather than the
latter according to sociological surveys. A recent study found only 17 percent
of Ukrainian believers identify with the Moscow Patriarchate while 46 percent
do so as part of the Kyiv one (pewforum.org/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/).
Thus, the
archbishop says, “when those in the Moscow Patriarchate declare that they
supposedly are the largest confession [in Ukraine], this isn’t true.” They have
the most parishes but “by the number of believers,” they are “at a minimum two
or even two and a half times smaller confession than that of the Kyiv
Patriarchate.”
It is also the case that many Ukrainians
in parishes registered with the state as part of the Moscow Patriarchate would
change their affiliation if given the chance and that the Ukrainian government
is being entirely reasonable in creating legal means for their making such
changes given the Moscow Patriarchate’s opposition to any change without its
sanction.
(For a discussion of these draft
laws and their implications, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2017/05/new-ukrainian-legislation-about.html.)
The Kyiv Patriarchate has called on
the Moscow Patriarchate to take part in dialogue on how to resolve these
problems. But the Moscow church doesn’t
want to because it insists that “we have no problems” and therefore have
nothing to discuss, the archbishop says.
And it has launched a virulent propaganda campaign against the Ukrainian
church.
“But in fact,” Yevstraty says, “there
is a conflict within the Moscow Patriarchate between those who want to remain
in [it] (typically a minority) and those who want to go over to the jurisdiction
of the Kyiv Patriarchate.” If a majority in the Moscow parishes wants to
remain, he continues, there will be no conflict: the minority who wants to
leave will simply have to do so.”
“A conflict will arise inside the
communities of the Moscow Patriarchate” only when a majority wants to shift to
the Kyiv Patriarchate and a minority does not.
“The Moscow Patriarchate does not want to resolve this issue in any
ways,” the Ukrainian churchman suggests.
“From my point of view,” Yevstraty
concludes, “the Moscow Patriarchate is using this objective reality in order to
generate within itself a sense of a besieged fortress. There is such a
psychological technology which is used in those structures certain religious
specialists call sects: enemies are all around and thus their members must form
up ever closer to a single center.”
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