Religion and Conflict

Publications: 41

Prayer Forced Me to Leave the Russian Orthodox Church
Religion and Conflict

Prayer Forced Me to Leave the Russian Orthodox Church

On February 7th, 2023, still a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, I boarded a plane and left the Holy Land, where I was serving as a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (REM). Only after landing in Antalya (Turkey) did I publish a post on social media in which I announced my…

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Persecuting Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh)
Religion and Conflict

Persecuting Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh)

As I pen down these words in my office at the Armenian Theological Seminary of the Holy See of Cilicia, it’s heartrending to acknowledge that over 120,000 Armenian individuals, including children in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) within the South Caucasus, are facing the dire fate of starvation. Unlike many other instances of famine, this crisis has been…

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By Silence God is Betrayed…Again
Religion and Conflict

By Silence God is Betrayed…Again

On May 11th, 2023, Moscow priest John Koval was defrocked by the ecclesiastical court after being suspended by Patriarch Kirill in February of the same year. His offense was replacing the word “victory” with “peace” in the “Prayer for Holy Rus’” mandated by the Patriarchate of Moscow to be included in all litanies. The “offensive”…

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Inter-Orthodox Relations in the Symbolic Field of Ukrainian Society
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Religion and Conflict

Inter-Orthodox Relations in the Symbolic Field of Ukrainian Society

The last year has been a difficult and conflictual one in Ukraine. It seems that war has become a way of life and thinking. It reanimates conflicts, exposes people’s feelings, opens old wounds, provokes intolerance and the search for an enemy, embitters, and most importantly, it makes people believe that there are simple solutions to…

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On Non-Violence, Defense, and Victory in the Context of the Russian Aggression against Ukraine
Religion and Conflict

On Non-Violence, Defense, and Victory in the Context of the Russian Aggression against Ukraine

First of all, let me make my standpoint clear: I am from Ukraine, I am Orthodox, I have experience and interest in peacebuilding, and I co-translated the document For the Life of the World: Towards the Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church (FLOW) into Ukrainian and Russian. I find this document a profound and inspiring…

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An Act of Lighthearted Betrayal <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>How Moscow's Official Church Hunts Down Her Anti-War Priests</span>
Church Life and Pastoral Care, Religion and Conflict

An Act of Lighthearted Betrayal
How Moscow's Official Church Hunts Down Her Anti-War Priests

There were relatively few people in Moscow who knew Fr. John Koval before February 2023. Native to Luhansk, Ukraine, he moved to Moscow and graduated from the famous Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. He received theological training at St. Thikhon Orthodox University of Humanities before being ordained some twenty years ago…

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Public Orthodoxy seeks to promote conversation by providing a forum for diverse perspectives on contemporary issues related to Orthodox Christianity. The positions expressed in the articles on this website are solely the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Orthodox Christian Studies Center.

Attribution

Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University