{"id":14213,"date":"2014-06-24T16:06:54","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T16:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=4858"},"modified":"2014-06-24T22:09:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T20:09:59","slug":"4858-kremlins-orthodox-world-breaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/4858-kremlins-orthodox-world-breaking","title":{"rendered":"Is the Kremlin\u2019s \u201cOrthodox World\u201d Breaking Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on June 5 to the Russian World Affairs Council in Moscow, claimed that the West has intervened in Ukraine\u2019s internal affairs as part of a larger offensive against the world of Russian Orthodoxy. \u00a0The United States and the West, despite living in a multicultural world, are determined to \u201cimpose Western values on everyone.\u201d \u00a0Thus they have pushed Ukraine into a conflict with Russia because of the latter\u2019s return to its \u201ctraditional spiritual values,\u201d namely those connected with the Russian Orthodox Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Paul Goble, an analyst for the Jamestown Foundation, Lavrov\u2019s remarks reflect assumptions held by President Vladimir Putin and others in Russia\u2019s leadership that a \u201cclash of civilizations\u201d is taking place between the worlds of Western Christianity and Russian-led Eastern Christianity. \u00a0This clash of civilizations poses a direct threat to the dominance of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n

In southeastern Ukraine, where most Christians belong to the Moscow Patriarchate, those supporting the region\u2019s separation from Ukraine have emphasized the significance of this civilizational divide. \u00a0Archpriest Andrei Novikov, who had to leave his Odessa parish, is one such example. \u00a0Writing for a Moscow-based Russian Orthodox news portal on June 4, he said that Russian forces needed to win the conflict in Ukraine. \u00a0The Ukrainian crisis is part of a broader struggle between Russian Orthodox and the dark forces of Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Ukrainian Orthodox movements Novikov calls \u201cschismatic.\u201d \u00a0Failure to win this war would lead to the war in Ukraine coming \u201cto Russia itself<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such claims that the Moscow Patriarchate is in a state of siege is understandable. \u00a0Up to 43 percent of its parishioners live in Ukraine, and while they do not contribute to the Patriarchate\u2019s treasury, their numbers add prestige to the Russian Orthodox Church, making it the largest branch of Eastern Orthodoxy in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Kirill has recently suggested that the conflict in eastern Ukraine is seriously testing the Russian Orthodox world. \u00a0In a June 17 address to parishioners, he condemned the violence in eastern Ukraine that has so far produced hundreds of deaths, referring to it as \u201cwar of fratricide\u201d (mizhusobna viyna<\/i>) that has only benefited outside powers interested in subjugating the Orthodox \u201cFatherland\u201d (Vitchyzna)<\/i>. \u00a0\u201cI appeal to all the powers that be: end the bloodshed immediately and begin real negotiations for establishing peace and justice,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cIn a war of fratricide, no victors, no political victories can be of greater value than human life.\u201d \u00a0Patriarch Kirill made clear his church\u2019s position on the conflict. \u00a0The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, as the church of \u201cone indivisible Rus,\u201d \u201ccannot divide God\u2019s people by political, national, social, or other criteria.\u201d \u00a0He said, \u201cThe Church carries out the mission given to it by the Lord Jesus Christ, and not the orders or requests of this or that political power<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Kirill\u2019s June 17 statement suggests that the Russian Orthodox world has become uncomfortable with this clash of civilizations suggested by Lavrov and others. \u00a0Yevstratii Zoria, Bishop of Chernihiv for the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, has suggested its explosive potential. \u00a0Commenting on Facebook on June 18 about Patriarch Kirill\u2019s statement, he said that Patriarch Kirill was sending an important signal to President Putin. \u00a0The Patriarch was asserting, however cautiously, that the Russian Orthodox Church is looking after its own interests, including the substantial numbers of followers it has in Ukraine, and that it was not entirely beholden to President Putin. \u00a0In referring to the conflict in Ukraine as a \u201cwar of fratricide,\u201d he hinted that this was more about a conflict between Kyiv and Moscow than a civil war within Ukraine. \u00a0In other words, Patriarch Kirill is beginning to hedge his bets and distance his church from the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Kirill\u2019s distancing himself from this war in defense of Russian Orthodoxy is not entirely surprising. \u00a0Journalist Nikolai Mitrokhin, commenting on the Patriarch\u2019s absence from the official ceremony celebrating Crimea joining Russia in late March, emphasized that the Moscow Patriarchate has been quite aware of the dangers it faces if it alienates its followers in Ukraine. \u00a0Since 1992, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has enjoyed autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. \u00a0Its synod in Kyiv deals with administrative and personnel issues entirely on its own. \u00a0Since the Orange Revolution of 2004, a faction within the Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church \u2013 what Mitrokhin calls a \u201cUkrainian party\u201d \u2013 has emerged, favoring greater independence from Moscow and distancing themselves from older clergy, particularly those from southeastern Ukraine, who have expressed greater sympathy for a restoration of the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire. \u00a0This \u201cUkrainian party\u201d has enjoyed the support of the main mass of the church\u2019s followers who have developed a sense of belonging to one nation-state after over twenty years of independence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the Euromaidan protests, leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine were compelled to support President Viktor Yanukovych, who supported them financially. \u00a0Yet a significant portion of their church hierarchy and apparatus either secretly or openly expressed their solidarity with the protests. \u00a0Its leaders have spoken out against Russian aggression in Ukraine. \u00a0Metropolitan Onufriy, currently acting on behalf of Metropolitan Volodymyr, who has been incapacitated, made a number of passionate appeals to Patriarch Kirill and President Putin, demanding that Russia stop its military operations in Crimea. \u00a0Other figures in Ukraine\u2019s Moscow Patriarchate, including Lviv\u2019s Bishop Filaret, have done the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitrokhin, reflecting on Patriarch Kirill\u2019s distancing himself from celebrations over Crimea\u2019s annexation, concluded that the \u201cRussian World\u201d (Russkii <\/i>Mir<\/i><\/a>) <\/i>project \u2013 one celebrating a civilization united by the values of Russian Orthodoxy \u2013 has failed.<\/p>\n

Considering the Ukrainian Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s position on Ukrainian statehood, the Euromaidan protests, and the war with Russia, Patriarch Kirill had to condemn this \u201cwar of fratricide\u201d between brother Orthodox peoples. \u00a0Thus the Russian Orthodox civilization touted by Foreign Minister Lavrov is showing serious signs of possible disintegration. \u00a0Patriarch Kirill may be trying to stop the Moscow Patriarchate from losing its followers in Ukraine, but in the process, he is already facing the risk of colliding with the likes of Lavrov and Putin. \u00a0The clash of civilizations portrayed by Lavrov thus distracts us from more serious fissures between Russian Orthodoxy and the Kremlin that may get worse as the \u201cwar of fratricide\u201d becomes even bloodier.<\/p>\n

William <\/i>Risch<\/i>,<\/i><\/p>\n

Associate Professor of History at Georgia College<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on June 5 to the Russian World Affairs Council in Moscow, claimed that the West has intervened in Ukraine\u2019s internal affairs as part of a larger offensive against the world of Russian Orthodoxy. \u00a0The United States and the West, despite living in a multicultural world, are determined to \u201cimpose […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[705,748],"tags":[],"section":[743],"form":[800],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Kremlin\u2019s \u201cOrthodox World\u201d Breaking Up? | UACRISIS.ORG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on June 5 to the Russian World Affairs Council in Moscow, claimed that the West has intervened in | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/4858-kremlins-orthodox-world-breaking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Kremlin\u2019s \u201cOrthodox World\u201d Breaking Up? 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