Tag: Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Religious Calendars in Antiquity <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>Some Background to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s Recent Calendar Switch</span>
Biblical Studies, Church History

Religious Calendars in Antiquity
Some Background to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s Recent Calendar Switch

On September 1st, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine moved to the Revised Julian (“New”) Calendar. Fixed festivals will now align with Gregorian Calendar dates. In a statement, the OCU Synod stated that the Julian (“Old”) Calendar had become associated predominately with the Russian tradition. In addition, they point out that the Julian system has no…

Continue reading
On the Way to a Unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>Challenges and Perspectives</span>
Inter-Orthodox Relations

On the Way to a Unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine
Challenges and Perspectives

On February 16, the second face-to-face meeting of initiative groups of clergy and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was held in Sophia National Sanctuary Complex in Kyiv. Its final appeal we published on Public Orthodox earlier. Now we follow up with the impressions and comments of…

Continue reading
Church Schisms in Ukraine and Russia: Patriarch Kirill as Comparative Historian
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Church Schisms in Ukraine and Russia: Patriarch Kirill as Comparative Historian

by Maureen Perrie | ελληνικά | Русский On January 8, 2023, the Sunday after Christmas Day, Patriarch Kirill preached a sermon in the ancient Uspenskii (Dormition) Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The Patriarch presented a very upbeat view of the current state of the Russian Orthodox Church, which—he said—had not only revived but flourished in…

Continue reading
Six Months Later: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Still at the Crossroads
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Six Months Later: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Still at the Crossroads

by Andriy Fert In late May 2022, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) held a local council to announce independence from the Moscow Patriarchate. But six months since, it is still being determined what that independence means. Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv commemorates heads of other churches in the way only primates of autocephalous churches do. Still,…

Continue reading
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…

Continue reading
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…

Continue reading
Will Orthodoxy in Ukraine Miss a Chance?
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Will Orthodoxy in Ukraine Miss a Chance?

Image: iStock.com/Haidamac On May 27, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) declared its independence from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), of which it had until then been a branch. The reason is very clear: it disagrees with its (former) supreme hierarch, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who has supported the Russian war against Ukraine. The UOC did…

Continue reading
Does Europe Have a Christian Basis for Actively Supporting Ukraine against the Evil Attack?
Religion and Conflict

Does Europe Have a Christian Basis for Actively Supporting Ukraine against the Evil Attack?

by Fr. Bohdan Oghulchanskij | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски I, Bohdan Oghulchanskij, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, am writing this text on February 27, 2022, the fourth day of the Russian mass invasion. I can’t know what will happen by the time this text gets published. I…

Continue reading
Help Ukraine by Recognizing the OCU’s Autocephaly
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Help Ukraine by Recognizing the OCU’s Autocephaly

by Andreja Bogdanovski | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the West has displayed a significant level of unity and solidarity with Ukraine. Comprehensive sanctions against Russia’s leadership coupled with military support to the Ukrainians have been at the forefront…

Continue reading
Schism as a Stance of Nonexistence <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>The Moscow Patriarchate and New Lines in Orthodoxy</span>
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Schism as a Stance of Nonexistence
The Moscow Patriarchate and New Lines in Orthodoxy

by Heta Hurskainen | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски With its autonomous church in Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate could not accept the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s actions to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) in 2018–2019. The Moscow Patriarchate severed its relationships with Constantinople and other primates…

Continue reading
Toward a New Ecclesiological Paradigm? Consequences of the Ukrainian Autocephaly
Ecclesiology, Inter-Orthodox Relations

Toward a New Ecclesiological Paradigm? Consequences of the Ukrainian Autocephaly

by Thomas Bremer When the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted autocephaly to the newly established “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU), it intended to create a single local Church which would basically comprise all the Orthodox believers in that country. The name of the new Church as it appears in the tomos, namely “Most Holy Church of Ukraine,”…

Continue reading
Did the American Government Create the OCU? Political Ambitions and the Ukrainian Church
Religion and Politics

Did the American Government Create the OCU? Political Ambitions and the Ukrainian Church

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) has inspired a number of hypotheses on who initiated the event. Past president Petro Poroshenko, Patriarch Filaret, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew are usually identified as the architects of Ukrainian autocephaly. There is also a chorus of voices that attributes the creation…

Continue reading
The Voice of Silence: A Monastic Voice on the Ukrainian Question
Ecclesiology, Inter-Orthodox Relations

The Voice of Silence: A Monastic Voice on the Ukrainian Question

“Evil is erroneous judgment concerning the conceptual images of things.” – Saint Maximus the Confessor (Chapters on Love, 2.17) The decades-long schism in Ukrainian church life has created polarization not only between ecclesiastical jurisdictions, but also in the hearts of the people. Saint Maximus described erroneous judgment concerning the conceptual images of things as evil….

Continue reading
Filaret’s Final Act and the Future of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
Orthodoxy and Modernity

Filaret’s Final Act and the Future of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko In the four months that have elapsed since the Ecumenical Patriarchate (EP) granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the process of adjusting to the new situation has been challenging for both the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). The OCU has been enduring the growing…

Continue reading
Healing the Ukrainian Schism
Orthodoxy and Modernity

Healing the Ukrainian Schism

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko Among the sister Churches that are now called upon to either recognize or refuse recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), a common refrain is intoned: a conciliar and synodal process needs to take place to resolve this issue. Some would like a synaxis of primates, and others have…

Continue reading
Contact
Disclaimer

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