The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-25)

MONDAY, APRIL 25 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY ERIN CUNNINGHAM

The United Nations secretary
general called last week for an
Easter truce between Russia and
Ukraine. Orthodox Christians in
both countries observed Easter
on Sunday.
But as the fighting continued
to rage, Ukrainian President Vo-
lodymyr Zelensky accused Mos-
cow on Thursday of rejecting the
U.N. proposal.
Russia’s invasion has roiled
global markets, revived the NATO
alliance and triggered war crimes
investigations. It has also opened
a rift in the Orthodox Church,
pitting the Russian wing and its
pro-Kremlin patriarch against
Orthodox leaders in Kyiv and
around the globe.
Orthodox Christianity is one of
the largest Christian commu-
nions in the world — after Cathol-
icism and the Protestant church.
Most of its roughly 260 million
adherents are concentrated in
Europe, Russia and other parts of
the former Soviet Union.
It is the dominant faith in both
Russia and Ukraine, where the
status of the church has become a
source of tension between Mos-
cow and Kyiv. For Russian Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin and his ally
in the church, Patriarch Kirill,
Ukraine is an inseparable part of
a greater Russian world — one
with Moscow as its political cen-
ter and Kyiv as its spiritual hub.
Because of this, Kirill, 75, has
offered a full-throated endorse-
ment of the war, doubling down
even as the world recoils at wide-
spread reports of Russian atroci-
ties in Ukraine. His pro-war
stance has angered other church
leaders, in Ukraine and across the
Orthodox faith, many of whom
have condemned the war and
urged Kirill to reconsider his sup-
port.
Here’s how the tensions within
the church are playing out:

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church

is one of the largest and most

influential in the world, with

more than 100 million followers,

according to the Pew Research

Center. In 2009, Kirill was elected

patriarch — the first since the fall

of the Soviet Union.

At first, Kirill was seen as a

modernizer who might carve out

some independence for the

church, after his predecessor,

Alexiy II, used his political ties to

raise the church’s profile after

decades of atheist communism.

Russian politicians bankrolled

the construction of new churches,

and religious leaders appeared

front and center at state func-

tions.

Since then, however, Kirill has

solidified his role as an ally of the

Kremlin, helping Putin cloak his

political and military ambitions

in the language of faith.

On Feb. 23, one day before the

invasion, Kirill released a state-

ment praising Putin for his “high

and responsible service to the

people of Russia” and describing

mandatory military service as “an

active manifestation of evangeli-

cal love for neighbors.”

In the weeks since the war

started, Kirill has used his ser-

mons to justify the campaign,

portraying it as a struggle against

sinful Western culture — al-

though he is careful to avoid

referring to the conflict as a war

or invasion that was launched by

Russia.

He has focused almost entirely

on what he calls Ukraine’s “exter-

mination” of pro-Russian sepa-

ratists in the Donbas region in the

eastern part of the country. Earli-

er this month, Kirill delivered a

sermon urging Russians to rally

around the government “during

this difficult time,” the Reuters

news agency reported.

“Let the Lord help us unite

during this difficult time for our

Fatherland, including around the

authorities,” the Interfax news

agency quoted Kirill as saying at a

sermon in Moscow.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

— Moscow Patriarchate

The vast majority of Ukraini-

ans identify as Orthodox Chris-

tian, according to Pew. Their loy-

alties, however, are split between

at least two major ecclesiastical

bodies, one being the Ukrainian

Orthodox Church, which is “self-

governing” but remains under

the jurisdiction of the Moscow

Patriarchate.

For centuries, churches in

Ukraine and Russia were both

under the leadership of the Mos-

cow patriarch. However, with the

collapse of the Soviet Union, the

church in Ukraine pressed for —

and obtained — semiautonomous

status in 1990.

But in recent years, after Rus-

sia illegally annexed Crimea and

intervened in eastern Ukraine, an

increasing number of Ukrainian

followers have sought to counter

what they see as Moscow’s influ-

ence.

Since the invasion, those calls

have intensified — and parishio-

ners have grown angry over the

Russian Orthodox Church’s sup-

port for the war. All of this has put

the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

and its leader, Metropolitan Onu-

phury, in a precarious position,

particularly as reports of civilian

massacres and other atrocities

mount.

On Feb. 24, the day of the

invasion, Onuphury released a

statement calling the military

campaign a “disaster” and ap-

pealing to Putin to “immediately

stop the fratricidal war.”

The war between Russians and

Ukrainians “is a repetition of the

sin of Cain, who killed his own

brother out of envy,” Onuphury

said. “Such a war has no justifica-

tion either from God or from

people.”

The church has emphasized its

role in providing assistance to

civilians and presiding over the

burial of Ukrainian service mem-

bers.

Some priests have stopped

commemorating Kirill in their

services or have called on Onu-

phury to break away from Mos-

cow entirely.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine

The Orthodox Church of

Ukraine is three years old. Its

founding was the direct result of

the burgeoning movement to peel

away from the Russian Orthodox

Church and create a purely inde-

pendent ecclesiastical entity for

Ukraine.

The church’s recognition by the

patriarchate in Turkey angered

Moscow, and the Russian Ortho-

dox Church severed its ties with

that body.

The leader of the Orthodox

Church of Ukraine is Metropoli-

tan Epiphanius, 43, who has been

vocal in his criticism of Putin and

the war. Soon after the invasion,

Epiphanius released a statement

likening the Russian leader to

both the Antichrist and Adolf

Hitler.

“The spirit of the Antichrist

operates in the leader of Russia,

the signs of which the Scriptures

reveal to us: pride, devotion to

evil, ruthlessness, false religiosi-

ty,” he said. “This was Hitler dur-

ing World War II. This is what

Putin has become today.”

This week, after he visited the

devastated city of Chernihiv,

Epiphanius urged Ukrainians to

continue to fight the Russian in-

vasion.

“Seeing the suffering, destruc-

tion, brutal violence and spread

of death that Russia brings to

every corner of Ukraine ... we

understand even better that only

the fight against the aggressor

[and] his expulsion from our land

can bring us a just peace,” he said.

Ecumenical Patriarchate of

Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarchate

of Constantinople is one of the

world’s oldest institutions. The

Orthodox Church has no single

leader, but Ecumenical Patriarch

Bartholomew is considered its

spiritual guide and “first among

equals” with the other patriarchs.

Bartholomew has been critical

of Moscow and the war, and of

Kirill and the Russian Orthodox

Church.

On the first day of the invasion,

he condemned what he said was

an “unprovoked attack by Russia

against Ukraine.”

Later, in an interview with

CNN Turk, he defended his deci-

sion to grant autocephaly to the

Orthodox Church of Ukraine and

warned that Russia’s aggression

and isolation could lead to a “new

Cold War.”

“The whole world is against

Russia,” Bartholomew said. “The

distance between Russia and the

Western world is getting bigger. It

means that we are entering a new

Cold War period.”

The patriarchate has delivered

humanitarian aid to the church in

Kyiv. On a visit to Poland in late

March, Bartholomew denounced

the invasion as an “atrocious” act.

“It is simply impossible to

imagine how much devastation

this atrocious invasion has

caused for the Ukrainian people

and the entire world,” Bartholo-

mew said at a news briefing,

according to the Associated Press.

He added that solidarity with

Ukrainians “is the only thing that

can overcome evil and darkness

in the world.”

The invasion is dividing the O rthodox Christian world

The religious rifts

between Moscow and

Kyiv are deepening

ANASTASIA VLASOVA/GETTY IMAGES

Residents pass a destroyed church that served as a military base for Russian soldiers in Lukashivka,

Ukraine. Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith in Russia and Ukraine.

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