BATTLE OF THRONES CONTINUES
Moscow again managed to win time and retain under its control "canonical" Orthodox believers in Ukraine
by Alexander Soldatov
The proclamation of the autocephaly (complete independence) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church expected on 31 May has been postponed at least until July. The next "cutoff" in the struggle of Ukrainian ecclesiastical autocephaly is the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the baptism of Rus in July. This was declared at a prayer breakfast in Kiev on 31 May by the "unrecognized" (still) Patriarch of Kiev and all-Rus-Ukraine Filaret, the former exarch of the Moscow patriarchate in Ukraine. And the rules of the game, which have developed in Orthodox geopolitics, are such that any delay and postponement play into Moscow's hands.
Novaia Gazeta has already written about the history of the question and the reasons for its intensification after the April meeting of Petro Poroshenko with (Ecumenical) Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew. For known reasons, in the past four years Ukraine has gotten rather far out from under Russian control. The more valuable in Moscow's eyes is the maintenance still of the subordination of 12,000 Ukrainian Orthodox parishes of the Moscow patriarchate.
However, about 6,000 Ukrainian parishes are "outside the canonical field"—in the Kiev patriarchate or the Autocephalous Church. It is to them that "canonical autocephaly" is intended to be granted by the Constantinople patriarchate—the senior in the family of local Orthodox churches. This patriarchate, the major portion of whose flock lives in the U.S.A. and other countries of the West, has a reputation as pro-American, and its intervention in the Ukrainian church question is fraught with the final departure of the Ukrainian church from the geopolitical orbit of Moscow. So that the question of Ukrainian autocephaly is for the Russian Orthodox Church in a certain sense a matter of life and death.
Throughout May both high opposing sides—the Constantinople and Moscow patriarchates—sent their emissaries to the local churches to persuade or dissuade them regarding recognizing a future Ukrainian autocephaly. It is known that in conversation with the Greek archbishop in Athens, the Constantinopolitans let it be understood that they will proclaim autocephaly in any case. In his turn, the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Ilarion, toured the Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch patriarchates, and also the Cyprus archdiocese, where he discussed Russia's participation in overcoming financial difficulties in these churches.
Simultaneously, Russia lowered the price of gas for Turkey, retroactively, so that now Russia suddenly will pay out a billion dollars to what is not the poorest country of Asia. Church analysts are inclined to connect this with an attempt to pressure the Constantinople patriarchate, located in Istanbul, through the Turkish government. Such a scheme worked in 2008, when Patriarch Bartholomew had already arrived in Kiev to proclaim autocephaly, but he received a phone call from the Turkish foreign ministry.
Metropolitan Ilarion does not tire of warning that in the event of the proclamation of Ukrainian autocephaly, there will occur a new great schism of the Orthodox world: there will appear "World Orthodoxy-1," led by the "liberal" Constantinople patriarchate, and "World Orthodoxy-2," led by the "conservative" Moscow patriarchate. The latter's side has already been taken by the heads of several local churches. For example, Patriarch of Serbia Iriny issued an unexpectedly sharp statement in Moscow on 23 May: "The martyr church of Ukraine is being desecrated by the blasphemy of schismatics, violence, and bloodshed. The Serbian church fully supports the unity and integrity of the Russian Orthodox Church and decisively condemns the actions of Uniates and schismatics, who are tearing the robe of Christ at the font of the Kievan baptism, selling their people to the enemies of the faith." And the primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Land and Slovakia, Metropolitan Rostislav, declared on 31 May the impermissibility of interference of politicians in ecclesiastical questions and he suggested that Ukrainian autocephaly will intensify the social and political conflict in Ukraine.
On the other hand, Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilus III, receiving on 29 May the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Andriy Parubly, recognized Ukraine's right "to its own independent national local church." The clear satellites of Constantinople (and Ukraine) include also the Romanian patriarchate, the Cyprus archdiocese, and the Albanian church. The Georgian church, possibly, might even support the RPTs, but the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where semi-official parishes of the Moscow patriarchate have appeared, does not permit it.
In general, an interesting pan-Orthodox tournament awaits us, with a final that is still unpredictable. But let the intermediate result be summed up by two numbers, which speak for themselves. The campaign of collection of signatures against toilets in churches garnered 700,000 signatures. The campaign of collection of signatures against Ukrainian autocephaly brought only 60,000. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 June 2018)
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