Tag: Europe

Ukraine: A New Legal Framework for the UOC?
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Religion and Politics

Ukraine: A New Legal Framework for the UOC?

“We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, on December 1, 2022, stated in reference to the need to ensure the spiritual independence of the country. He signed the decree with measures to counter religious organizations and figures affiliated with the aggressor state: the Russian…

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Four Months Later:  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s New Modus Vivendi
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Four Months Later:  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s New Modus Vivendi

Four months ago, a UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) Council in the Feofaniya monastery in Kyiv introduced fundamental changes into the Church’s statutes. That Council has already become a historic event—with possible implications for world Orthodoxy. But properly understanding the logic of its decisions means understanding what happened in the UOC after the Russian army’s full-scale…

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The Orthodox Church in Ukraine: War and “Another Autocephaly”
Inter-Orthodox Relations

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine: War and “Another Autocephaly”

War changes many things, primarily people’s minds, but also the usual flow of time. What takes years or even decades in peacetime takes a few months, or sometimes even days, during war.  On May 27, the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the highest governing body of the church, after much debate, expressed its…

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Hitler and Putin: 1938 and 2022
Orthodoxy and Modernity

Hitler and Putin: 1938 and 2022

Hitler delivered his speech of September 12, 1938 to the German Reichstag a few weeks before the German tanks rolled over the German-Czech border to invade Czechoslovakia; Putin delivered his speech of February 21, 2022 to the Russian nation as he was giving orders for the Russian tanks to cross the Russian border with Eastern…

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Islam, Europe, and Democracy <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>Seeking Answers in an Ongoing Discussion</span>
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations

Islam, Europe, and Democracy
Seeking Answers in an Ongoing Discussion

by Angeliki Ziaka | български | Română | Русский | Српски A version of this essay was published in Greek at Polymeros kai Polytropos, the blog of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies. A Georgian translation of the Greek text is also available. When approaching the discourse on “Islam, Europe, and Democracy,” and laying aside apparent understandings and admissions, we are faced with…

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Participation in 1821: The Universal Significance of the Greek Revolution
Religion and Politics

Participation in 1821: The Universal Significance of the Greek Revolution

by Panagiotis G. Pavlos | ελληνικά Two hundred years have passed since the beginning of Greek Revolution of 1821, the first successful revolution, after numerous failed attempts throughout five centuries, against the Ottoman conqueror and tyrant. It is an event of universal significance that not only signifies the resuscitation of Hellenism from the lethal bonds…

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Freedom of Speech in the Church <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>The Serbian Test Case</span>
Religion and the Academy

Freedom of Speech in the Church
The Serbian Test Case

by Milan Vukomanović | български | Ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски When, in March 2020, Serbian Patriarch Irinej officially sanctioned Dr. Vukašin Milićević, a priest and assistant professor of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology (FOT) at the University of Belgrade, it became clear that the recent interference of higher clergy of the Serbian…

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Behind Montenegro’s 2019 Law on Religious Freedom and Institutions
Orthodoxy and Modernity, Religion and Politics

Behind Montenegro’s 2019 Law on Religious Freedom and Institutions

by Ilijana Todorovic | ελληνικά | српски [This article assesses Montenegro’s controversial religion legislation approved by parliament in December, 2019.] The main subject of the Montenegrin law is ownership of religious property. Although every single article of the law has legal deficiencies, the most significant problems are presented in Articles 62 and 63. These two articles…

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Silencing Theologians in Serbia
Orthodoxy and Modernity, Religion and the Academy

Silencing Theologians in Serbia

An interview with Rodoljub Kubat | ελληνικά  |  српски After a critical statement about the situation with the coronavirus, Vukašin Milićević, lecturer at the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, was banned from speaking publicly by the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In this interview, his colleague Rodoljub Kubat sheds light on the background and…

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When Icons Make You Sick <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>Religious Materiality in Post-Chernobyl Contamination</span>
Culture and Arts

When Icons Make You Sick
Religious Materiality in Post-Chernobyl Contamination

by Elena Romashko | ελληνικά | Română | српски The publication of this essay coincides with the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Saturday, April 26, 1986. In March 2020, we were asked to work from home because of the pandemic of coronavirus. We could not even imagine how quickly the situation would escalate to a…

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Roma Inclusion in Romanian Orthodoxy: Too Little Too Late?
Culture and Arts, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Roma Inclusion in Romanian Orthodoxy: Too Little Too Late?

by Maria Alina Asavei April 8 is celebrated worldwide as the International Roma Day. Romani people both honour their culture across the world and commemorate the centuries of persecutions and mistreatment in light of present Romaphobia and persistent discrimination against the most vulnerable ethic group in Europe. On this occasion, the Archbishop Andrei of Cluj-Napoca…

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In Ukraine, Is Constantinople Rushing in “Where Angels Fear to Tread”?
Orthodoxy and Modernity, Religion and Politics

In Ukraine, Is Constantinople Rushing in “Where Angels Fear to Tread”?

by Nicolai N. Petro  |  ру́сский On the eve of national elections in 2019, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has set himself the ambitious task of dismantling the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, an autonomous and self-administered part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and creating a new, single national church out of the many Christian denominations…

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Theology as Science in Russia and the German Model
Religion and the Academy, Theology

Theology as Science in Russia and the German Model

by Anna Briskina-Müller  |  ελληνικά  |  ру́сский “The Moscow University was founded on the same principles as all German universities” – so says a Russian report from the early 1770s. Because no Russian professors were available, “no theological faculty was established […] That said, it would be beneficial to establish such a faculty for the training of the…

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Global Orthodoxy

The European Union, Russia, Religion, and Fear

by Kristina Stoeckl On 23 November 2016, the European Union Parliament passed a resolution entitled EU strategic communication to counteract anti-EU propaganda by third parties. In one part of this resolution, the signatories deplore that the Russian Government is employing a wide range of tools and instruments, such as think tanks and special foundations (e.g….

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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.

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