LEADERS of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) have condemned a decision by the Russian Orthodox Church to replace one of their metropolitans with a Russian, in a sign of widening disputes.
“This decision is aimed at undermining Ukraine’s independence and the very existence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. . . It testifies to Moscow’s desire to annex the UOC’s canonical territory and destroy its independence and autonomy,” 31 bishops and metropolitans from the UOC’s 53 eparchies said.
“We reject this aggressive church policy towards the UOC and its long-suffering flock, and demand respect for the canonical UOC’s borders and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
The bishops were reacting to an announcement late last month by the Russian Holy Synod that Metropolitan Hilarion (Shukalo) of Donetsk-Mariupol would be retired in favour of Metropolitan Vladimir (Samokhin) of Vladivostok.
They said that the “unilateral decision” had been made with the UOC’s agreement, and violated Orthodox canons on “jurisdictional boundaries” and “attempts by one Church to take control of another’s territory”.
The move was defended, however, by the chairman of the Russian Synod’s Department for Church-Society Relations, Vladimir Legoyda, who said that it had been “urgently required” in the “special conditions of military action”.
“The current situation, where fighting is going on and people are dying every day, dictates the need for change,” Mr Legoyda said in a weekend statement.
“The entire Russian Orthodox Church is praying for the deliverance of Ukraine’s bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity from evil persecution, expressed in the arrest and unjust trials of UOC clergy and laity who are faithful to Orthodoxy, in physical aggression and false propaganda”.
The dispute flared as Ukrainian forces clashed for the first time this week with North Korean troops newly deployed on Russia’s side, and as a new law was enforced barring Ukrainian religious bodies from maintaining ties with Moscow.
Speaking this week, the Kyiv government’s freedom-of-conscience director, Viktor Yelenskyi, said that the UOC bishops’ protest had “made an encouraging impression” on priests and laity “long wanting to break with Moscow” and to reverse Russian Orthodox control over UOC dioceses in Moscow-occupied Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
“Society doesn’t expect a discussion between the UOC and Russian Church Synods, but the UOC’s unconditional withdrawal from the Russian Orthodox Church,” Mr Yelenskyi told the Ukrinform agency.
“There are many canonical and evangelical reasons for this. But if theologians still need some justification, then it’s obvious to ordinary people that they cannot be part of a Church whose Primate directly declares the destruction of Ukrainian culture and identity.”
In a new book, For Holy Russia: Patriotism and faith, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow repeats previous assurances that Russian soldiers will gain eternal life if they die in Ukraine.
“Those strata of our society not yet fully part of the Church must understand that the time has come to think about our country and the entire future of human civilisation,” Patriarch Kirill told a congregation on Monday in the Assumption Cathedral, in the Kremlin.
“We must all participate in strengthening our armed forces and our economy under the leadership of our Orthodox President — some with prayer, some with material assistance, some by joining the ranks of volunteers.”
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Religious Information Service, the RISU, referred to evidence that Russia had insisted on a full Orthodox restitution as part of its first peace proposal in 2022, along with Ukraine’s handover of territory and permanent neutrality, and was likely to demand the same in future.