Faith and Politics in Ukraine

For my own understanding, and perhaps for that of a few readers as well, I feel it is necessary to begin a discussion of Ukrainian Orthodoxy with a quick historical primer.  Everyone always asks when and how the Orthodox churches began to differ from the Catholic Church.  I have tried to sketch this history below, by cramming a couple thousand years into a few paragraphs.  The piece concludes with an introduction to the complex situation of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, and a summary of thoughts that Archbishop Mitrofan shared with me during an interview in the Monastery of the Caves.

What is the difference between Orthodox and Catholic?
The apostles of Christ trekked around Mediterranean lands and planted churches, within which evolved a hierarchy.  The apostles of Christ, consecrated bishops, who could then pass on spiritual power to others.  By the 2nd century AD many notable cities had a bishop.  Persecution meant that the Church frequently operated underground.  In places it was physically underground, with caves becoming the most important alters, schools, and resting places of martyrs.  Early in the new millennium Emperor Nero did a lot to keep Christians in hiding -- he issued sanctions against believers and allegedly found a use for them as human torches in his gardens.  The start of the 4th century saw the "great persecution" under Emperor Diocletian.  Then in 313 AD, after Constantine had his famous vision of the cross, the edict of Milan was passed -- ending government-sanctioned persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.  Constantine was also the one responsible for moving the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, and founding in Constantinople what would become a thousand year dynasty.  In 325 he convened the council of Nicaea to sort out a controversy that Arius had started in the Church regarding the nature of Jesus and the Father.

50 years after the death of Constantine, and the subsequent emergence of co-emperorship over the eastern and western aspects of the empire, Theodosius I the Great in the East and Gratian in the West outlawed pagan worship.
   
Following the practice established by the council of Nicaea six other major councils took place at different times between 4th and 8th centuries AD -- even after the Empire split in two -- with separate rules in the East and West.  During the councils core doctrine was established.  Including the belief that Christ was one substance existing in two natures, at once both fully human and fully divine.  In the 5th and 6th Centuries, Christian communities in the orient distanced themselves from the others, later to become the Oriental Orthodox and Coptic churches.
 
Whilst the Byzantine Empire flourished under the Justinian dynasty of the 6th century, the Western Empire was broken apart and succumbed to constant attacks from outside invaders.  In the relatively stable environment of the East, Christianity evolved as a decentralized Church.  Co-equal bishops of key cities met occasionally and decision was taken by consensus.  In the unstable west only the bishop of Rome, who remained cut off from the Eastern bishops, was able to maintain an apostolic foundation and so naturally developed a centralized authority.  Power became concentrated in the bishop of Rome and the Papacy was born. Charlemagne was crowned and the Holy Roman Empire began to spread. There began to be attempts to take control of the Eastern Christian world.

Further tension arose in the 8th century over the use of Icons. Icons are integral to Orthodoxy, but in 730 Leo III demanded their destruction as he believed icons to be idols.  The 7th ecumenical council dealt with the use of icons in liturgical life.  The council was first convened in Constantinople, 754, under the authority of Emperor Constantine V Copronymus.  It has become known as the Iconoclast council, as it condemned icons.  The outcome of the council was not supported by the entire Church and was thus not recognized as doctrine .  Destruction of Icons continued until 780 when Empress Irene but a stop to the practice.  In 787 a second 7th Ecumenical council was held, this time in Nicaea, condemning iconoclasm and affirming the veneration of holy Icons.  Destruction of Icons began again under Leo V in 815, until it was finally stamped out by Empress Theodora in 843.

The now separate Empires -- Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Holy Roman, Germanic), had active missionaries in Eastern Europe during the 9th century.  Among the Eastern Christians, Cyril and Methodius were the most famous missionaries.  In 861 they departed from Constantinople to convert the Slavs (the Cyrillic alphabet is named for St. Cyril, who used it in teaching Slavs about Christianity).  By 988 baptism of Rus' had picked up significant force with the conversion of St. Vladimir of Kiev.  In 1051 the Monastery of the Kiev Caves was founded. 

Cyril and Methodius, however, were not the first to bring Christianity to the region.  Legend has St. Andrew (the patron saint of Scotland) preaching on the site of Kiev early in the new millennium -- and prophesizing the foundation of a great Christian city.  There was also evidence that a Crimean resident was present at the first council of Nicaea. 

Between the 9th and 11th centuries it became quite noticeable to missionaries and bishops alike that doctrinal shifts had occurred in the Western, Latin, Church since the split of the Empire some five hundred years earlier.  Most significant was the use of the concept of Filioque -- a Latin word meaning "and the Son" which was used to indicate that the holy spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son -- as in: [Spiritus Sanctus] qui ex Patre Filioque procedit "[Holy Spirit] who proceeds from the Father and the Son."  The Pope in 1054 changed the Nicene Creed to reflect this understanding.  He changed it without convening an ecumenical council of all the bishops.   This was, needless to say, offensive to the Patriarchs and bishops of the Church in the East, it was also considered by them to be an invalid change as the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 had forbade and anathematized any additions to the Creed.  1054 is thus known as the year of the Great Schism.

And, as if to add injury to insult, the Roman Catholic warriors of the 4th Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204.  This is an event this is not forgotten in the Eastern Orthodox world.  The Ecumenical Patriarch was disposed and replaced with a Latin leader.  In 1439 the Council of Florence attempted to unite the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.  As a result the Church of Russia in 1448 declared its independence from what it saw as a tarnished Church of Constantinople. The city of Constantinople fell to Ottomans in 1453, leaving what was left of the Orthodox world, outside of Russia, weakened and persecuted.

Of course, the Church in Russia, was not without its bumps and bruises.  Before the Church in Russia became independent it was a Metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople -- the Byzantine patriarch appointed the metropolitan who governed the Church of Rus' from Kiev.  However, by late 13th century, Kiev was no longer the place to be.  The city was struggling to maintain any political or spiritual significance in light of the Mongol invasion. Metropolitan Maximus moved to Vladimir in 1299 (not far from Moscow) and in 1326, Metropolitan Peter and Theognostus, moved the Church administration to Moscow.

Today there are three Ukrainian Orthodox Churches (UOC):
1 Ukrainian Orthodox Church -- Moscow Patriarchy
2 Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
3 Ukrainian Orthodox Church -- Kiev Patriarchy

1. The UOC of the Moscow Patriarchy -- whose story is recounted in the paragraph above -- is currently administrated from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) under the guidance of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan).  The UOC-MP is the only one of the three to have canonical standing in Eastern Orthodoxy and operates in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Churches.  Most active in eastern and southern Ukraine.  It also owns the majority of church property in Ukraine.  The UOC-MP, as one would expect, has problems with the claims of legitimacy made by the other Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.   

2. Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church -- created by a synod in 1921 in Kiev following increased national sentiments during the brief attempts at independence after WWI.  The Church was created to meet "the aspirations of the people of Ukraine to worship God in their own living language and to have a nation where their history, their traditions, their perspective on the world would be guaranteed." Unfortunately, no bishops would agree to consecrate the candidates chosen to lead the Church.  Thus the UAOC was not recognized by other Eastern Orthodox churches, although it was given autocephalous status in 1924 by Constantinople.  There was contention and persecution by the Soviets in the interwar years.  The UAOC operated during Nazi occupation, but after WWII the Soviets would only recognize churches of the Moscow Patriarchy.  They liquidated all others -- even going so far as to execute non-compliant clergy or shuffle them off to concentration camps.  When Soviet power waned in the 1980s the UAOC was recognized by the State and in 1993 re-established itself as an independent church. The UAOC is most visible in the western provinces. 

3. The UOC of the Kiev Patriarchy -- is something of a split from the UAOC.  The head of the UAOC in the early 1990s was Metropolitan Mstyslav, serving under him was Metropolitan Filaret -- who had recently been kicked out of the Moscow Patriarchy for attempting to start his own Church.  Filaret again attempted to start his own Church by provoking a split within the autocephalous church between those loyal to Mstyslav and those linked to Filaret.  These latter called themselves “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP).” In 1995 Filaret became the head of the UOC-KP, and in 1997 he was excommunicated by a Bishops' Council of the Moscow Patriarchate.

In terms of administrative size the UOC-MP has the most parishes -- some 10,300, followed by the UOC-KP with 3,400.  The UAOC has around 1,150.  In terms of believers the UOC-KP is probably the largest, with some 20% or more of Ukrainians claiming membership.  12% ally with the Moscow Patriarch, and 1% with the UAOC.  There is also about a quarter of the population self-identifying as Orthodox but unallied to any denomination.

During our study tour of Ukraine, I had the chance to meet with Archbishop Mitrofan of the UOC-Moscow Patriarch at the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev.  He recounted much of the history that I have included above.  We had a discussion about the future of the Church and the political situation in Ukraine.  There was a feeling that President Yushchenko desires the unification of Ukraine's orthodox Churches.  The Archbishop was concerned with the way that Filaret (Kiev Patriarchy) has tried to court the interest and favour of the government. Filaret's Church the, UOC-Kiev Patriarchy, has not been recognized by any other Church.  According to Archbishop Mitrofan, Filaret has been trying to pressure the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople -- considered by the Orthodox world to be the first among equals --  into recognizing the legitimacy of the Kiev-Patriarchy.  Mitrofan pointed out that if Constantinople were to recognize the Kiev-Patriarchy then other churches would demand autonomy and break relations.  The Polish and Greek Orthodox Churches have already threatened to do so if Kiev is recognized, because this would represent to them a violation of Church rules, and thus the demise of the Holy Spirit in Constantinople.   

There are certainly noticeable parallels between the political and religious situation in Ukraine, in so much as the Kiev-Patriarchy has for many Ukrainians become an identifying mark of pro-presidential-western advancement, defying the will of Moscow and forging a new organization.  And while the Moscow Patriarchy remains officially un-allied in the political sphere, it would be interesting to see whether there is a party preference among its faithful.

Daniel Washburn

Comments

[Fred Prescott]

Nice comment...

Perhaps don't know what about you are talking.

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