• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, March 20, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Moscow Rages as Ukrainian Church’s Independence Recognized

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
10/11/18
in World
A Russian church

Photo: Mladen Antonov, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate on Thursday said it had agreed to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in a move welcomed with jubilation by Kiev but condemned as “catastrophic” in Moscow.

Russia had warned against allowing the Ukraine Church to sever its ties with Moscow, with the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, travelling to Istanbul earlier this year in a bid to dissuade the patriarchate.

The issue is set to play a key role in Ukraine’s March 2019 presidential elections, with incumbent President Petro Poroshenko making independence from the Russian Orthodox Church — known as autocephaly — a key issue as he plans a re-election bid.

Poroshenko quickly hailed the decision of the Patriarchate, which is based in its historic home of Istanbul, the former Constantinople and once the capital of the Byzantine Empire before the Ottoman Muslim conquest of 1453.

“This is a victory of good over evil, light over darkness,” Poroshenko said in televised remarks, adding that Ukraine has been waiting for this “historic event” for more than 330 years.

But the Russian Orthodox Church said that the Patriarchate had taken “catastrophic” decisions both for itself and global Orthodoxy.

“The Patriarchate of Constantinople has crossed a red line,” a spokesman for Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, Alexander Volkov, said in televised remarks.

Historic day for #Ukraine & #Orthodox world. Synod of @EcuPatriarch made a decision to restore justice&opened a way for #UA Church's independence from #Moscow. It's a strong signal to everyone who in the 21st century uses #Church to control the neighbors.Religion is not a weapon

— Ivanna Klympush (@IKlympush) October 11, 2018

‘Canonically Reinstated’

The Patriarchate of Moscow, which is strongly backed by the Kremlin, argues it technically oversees most of Ukraine’s Orthodox parishes and has warned that independence would provoke a rift in global Orthodoxy.

The Ukrainian Church is currently split into three bodies, one technically overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow, a fact the Kiev government considers unacceptable given its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in the east.

An Istanbul synod meeting chaired by Patriarch Bartholomew, seen as the first among equals of Orthodox Church leaders, “decreed to proceed to the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine,” said an official statement read in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople.

In another key move, the synod also agreed to reinstate the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Patriarch Filaret and Kiev Metropolitan Makariy to their canonical ranks following their excommunication in the dispute with Moscow.

“Thus, the above-mentioned have been canonically reinstated to their hierarchical or priestly rank,” said the statement after a meeting that began on Tuesday.

‘Serve Ukrainian People’

Ukraine’s Orthodox church split from Moscow in the 1990s, with the charismatic Filaret a foremost proponent of a new independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In his first reaction, Filaret said Thursday’s decision would allow his country to finally establish a united church in Ukraine and vowed to soon convene a meeting to address the issue of unification and elect a new patriarch.

“We want the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be united not only in appearance but also in spirit so that it could serve the Ukrainian people,” Filaret told reporters outside St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kiev.

The Moscow Patriarchate has already downgraded its ties with Bartholomew I over the affair, which it considers an unjust encroachment on its spiritual territory.

On Wednesday, an influential Moscow Patriarch cleric went so far as to warn that parishioners will not hand over churches to a new Orthodox institution willingly.

“Of course, people will take to streets and protect their sacred sites,” Hilarion, a bishop in charge of diplomacy at the Patriarchate, was quoted by Russian agencies as saying at a religious congress in Kazakhstan.

Bartholomew I, a Turkish citizen of Greek origin who commands huge international respect for promoting inter-faith dialogue, will also not want to antagonize the Turkish authorities who are pressing a policy of a strong alliance with Russia.

Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads since 2014 when Kiev street protests urging Ukrainian integration with Europe prompted the ousting of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea later that year and backed rebels who carved out two unrecognized breakaway regions in Ukraine’s mineral-rich east in a conflict that continues to this day.

Ukrainian authorities and many worshippers are wary of the influence of Kirill, a strong ally of President Vladimir Putin who has supported the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the separatists in the east of the country.

Patriotic Youth Camps: Recruiting Next Generation ‘Russian World’ Supporters

Share6Tweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
World

Russia Fighting for Its ‘Historical Lands:’ Putin

by Staff Writer
February 23, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020
World

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

by Staff Writer
January 25, 2023
Soledar lies 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to seize for months
World

Fate of Ukraine’s Soledar Unclear as Wagner Claims Control

by Staff Writer
January 11, 2023
Russian passports
World

EU Won’t Recognize Russian Passports From Occupied Ukraine

by Staff Writer
November 10, 2022
Russia Today
World

Russian TV Host Apologizes for Calls to Burn Ukrainian Children

by Staff Writer
October 24, 2022
Arne Schoenbohm
World

German Cybersecurity Chief Sacked Over Alleged Russia Ties

by Staff Writer
October 18, 2022
Next Post
Thousands of Russians protested against the pension reform that will raise the pension age.

Russia's Pension Reform: Beginning of End of Putin's Regime?

Syrians at a site of car bomb in Idlib

Aid Groups Worried as Deadline Looms for Syria's Idlib

Recommended

participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023
A flooded road in Batu Berendam in Malaysia's southern coastal state of Malacca

At Least Four Dead, Tens of Thousands Evacuated in Malaysia Floods

March 6, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023

Opinion

Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post