Tag: Ukraine

Is There a “Frozen Conflict” in Orthodoxy? <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>And If So, What Can We Do About It?</span>
Global Orthodoxy, Inter-Orthodox Relations

Is There a “Frozen Conflict” in Orthodoxy?
And If So, What Can We Do About It?

by Regina Elsner During a conference on the crisis in Orthodoxy caused by the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, several participants used the concept of a “frozen conflict” to describe the “stable unresolved conflict” (Georgij Kovalenko). Given that the term is commonly used for several deadlocked conflicts on the territory of the former…

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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…

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Ukrainian Autocephaly and Responsibility toward the Faithful
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Ukrainian Autocephaly and Responsibility toward the Faithful

by His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias (Volos, Greece)  |  Русский The following are excerpts from the intervention of His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias, Chairman of the Synodal Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, during the Extraordinary Session of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (12th October 2019). The Synodal Committee for…

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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…

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Schismophrenia: A Reflection on Ukrainian Autocephaly
Ecclesiology, Inter-Orthodox Relations, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Schismophrenia: A Reflection on Ukrainian Autocephaly

“No earthly joy exists unmingled with sorrow” —St. John of Damascus We are all no doubt aware of the controversy surrounding the recent proclamation of autocephaly for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. As a Ukrainian Orthodox priest, I cannot help but see how St. John’s words are an apt description…

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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…

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Virtual Town Meeting Aims to Clarify the Issue of Ukrainian Autocephaly
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Virtual Town Meeting Aims to Clarify the Issue of Ukrainian Autocephaly

by Anthony J. Limberakis, MD It is one of the most vexing and important questions confronting the Church in our time, and one of the least understood: the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has rocked the Church more than any event in the last…

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The Ukrainian Church: A Multigenerational Divorce
Inter-Orthodox Relations, Orthodoxy and Modernity

The Ukrainian Church: A Multigenerational Divorce

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko In the last few days, a number of announcements appeared about the Ukrainian Church controversy. After President Poroshenko announced that the unification council will take place at St. Sophia Cathedral on December 15, a spurious text that appeared to be some version of the statute for the Church drafted by…

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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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Give Us This Day Our Daily Portion of Nationalism…
Orthodoxy and Modernity, Theology

Give Us This Day Our Daily Portion of Nationalism…

by Davor Džalto I tried to stay away from publicly expressing my thoughts on the current church/autocephaly crisis in Ukraine, for many reasons. First of all, there are much more competent people who know the situation better than I do. Second, the issue of autocephaly of the church in Ukraine has, by now, escalated so…

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Has Moscow Undermined Its Ability To Engender a Schism?
Inter-Orthodox Relations

Has Moscow Undermined Its Ability To Engender a Schism?

by Sotiris Mitralexis  |  ελληνικά Most observers are growing increasingly more worried about the drifting apart of Constantinople and Moscow on the basis of Ukraine’s imminent autocephaly. I would like to make a case to the contrary. There are indications that the possibility of a full-blown schism between two halves of the Orthodox world (rather than…

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Can History Solve the Conflict about Ukrainian Autocephaly?
Church History, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Can History Solve the Conflict about Ukrainian Autocephaly?

by Thomas Bremer and Sophia Senyk In early September 2018, the gathering conflict between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow around the status of Orthodoxy in Ukraine escalated. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, in response to a request by the Ukrainian president and the parliament, announced the preparation of a tomos which would grant autocephaly for the Orthodox…

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Can Tug-of-War Lead to Unity?
Church History, Ecclesiology, Inter-Orthodox Relations

Can Tug-of-War Lead to Unity?

  The death of Patriarch Alexei II marked the end of the “cold era” contacts between Moscow and Constantinople and started a new epoch in inter-Orthodox relations. Kirill’s first foreign visit since his January 2009 election as Patriarch of Moscow was to Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Unity and ecumenism were priorities for Patriarch…

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It’s Time for an Independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Global Orthodoxy

It’s Time for an Independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church

by Evagelos Sotiropoulos  |  ру́сский Ukraine achieved independence in 1991, and since then (and before, as well, dating back one hundred years) there have been efforts among the Orthodox faithful and their leaders—political and religious—to establish an independent (autocephalous) Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And since 1991, the Moscow Patriarchate has been unable or unwilling to settle the…

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The Heresy of Papism
Global Orthodoxy

The Heresy of Papism

by George Demacopoulos  |  ελληνικά  |  ру́сский The three-way dispute between Ukrainians, Russians, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the possibility of Ukrainian ecclesiastical independence is shaping up to be the greatest challenge to Orthodox Christian unity of our generation. From a purely political perspective, Ukrainian autocephaly would represent an unmitigated disaster for the Russian Orthodox…

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The Kremlin Hacks the Patriarchate: Is the Church Under Surveillance?
Global Orthodoxy

The Kremlin Hacks the Patriarchate: Is the Church Under Surveillance?

by Evangelos Razis The Kremlin has a long history of interfering in the life of the Orthodox Church. Tsars, General Secretaries, and Presidents have seen in the Church a partner, a source of legitimacy, and a threat to their authority. We learned last week that Vladimir Putin has brought this Russian tradition into the digital…

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The Church in Modern Ukraine: Information Literacy and the Narrative
Orthodoxy and Modernity

The Church in Modern Ukraine: Information Literacy and the Narrative

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko “A Tomos of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate would legitimize the schism in Ukraine. We must support the canonical church.” “Autocephalists are not ‘church people’. They are nationalists who seek to exploit the Church, and autocephaly will sever communion with the Orthodox Church.” “The schism in Ukraine began in 1992…

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The Promise of Autocephaly in Ukraine: What’s at Stake?
Global Orthodoxy

The Promise of Autocephaly in Ukraine: What’s at Stake?

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko Last week, news circulated that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is expected to issue a Tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. This news appeared on the heels of a meeting that took place between Patriarch Bartholomew, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his delegation after Pascha on April 9, 2018….

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Post-Truth
Orthodoxy and Modernity

Post-Truth

by Fr. Cyril Hovorun  |  ελληνικά   |  ру́сский The Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” the word of the year for 2016. That was the year when the phenomenon marked by this word affected the Western world most. It was the year of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. However, the…

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The Complexity and Duplicity of Deciphering the New Ukrainian Law on Religion
Religion and Politics

The Complexity and Duplicity of Deciphering the New Ukrainian Law on Religion

by Anatoliy Babynskyi The problem of conversions between religious communities has existed in Ukraine  since the late 1980s and early 1990s,  when the country was struggling for independence and its religious map was being formed. The rise from the underground of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC) raised questions about the restitution of property lost as…

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Global Orthodoxy

The Appeal of the Ukrainian Parliament and the Ecumenical Patriarchate

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko On the eve of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Churches, Ukraine’s Parliament approved and issued an urgent appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The Ukrainian Parliament asked Patriarch Bartholomew to nullify the transfer of jurisdiction of the Kyivan Metropolia from Constantinople to Moscow in 1686, to convene an…

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Ecclesiology, Global Orthodoxy

Phyletism and the Case for Ukrainian Autocephaly

by Nicholas Denysenko In my previous post, I introduced the Ukrainian problem and its significance for the forthcoming Great and Holy Council to be held in Crete in June 2016. Having argued that the movement for autocephaly in Ukraine originated nearly one-hundred years ago and is beginning to mature only in this post-soviet period, a…

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Ecclesiology, Global Orthodoxy

The Great and Holy Council and the Ukrainian Problem

by Nicholas Denysenko As the Orthodox Churches continue preparations for the Great and Holy Council, which will take place June 16-27, 2016, in Crete, one of the primary unresolved problems is the schism of the Church in Ukraine. While the council itself did not formally address the Ukrainian matter, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stated that…

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Why Did Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Agree to Meet with Pope Francis?
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Global Orthodoxy

Why Did Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Agree to Meet with Pope Francis?

We live in historic times. About a week ago, the leaders of the Orthodox Churches announced their commitment to hold the Pan-Orthodox Council on the island of Crete in mid-June 2016. The failed attempts to organize such a council for more than fifty years have been attributed to a variety of factors, most notably the…

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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