COMMENTS
The Russian Orthodox Church says that the war in Ukraine is, among other things, a war against gay parades and Western decadence. The war in Ukraine is therefore also a war of religion, writes Morten Strand.
HOLY BREAD 1: Patriarch Bartholomew’s 1st of Constantinople with then President Petro Poroshenko in 2019. Photo AFP / NTB
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Of course sacrilege when the Ukrainian National Assembly Rada immediately decides on – and votes in favor – a proposal to nationalize all the Moscow Patriarchate’s properties in Ukraine. It is church looting, seen from Moscow’s side. And it is just as obvious a sacrilege when the Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate considers changing the calendar so that Christmas Eve comes on December 25, and not January 7, to bring the Ukrainian church year in line with the Western one. For the Julian calendar is also sacred from Moscow, and the Gregorian calendar is of course for the infidels, the “west-facing” Zapadniks.
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But the very biggest the holy bread was when the Ukrainians first got their own national church just three years ago. There has been a smooth transition in Ukraine away from the Moscow Patriarchate, which in many ways is an extension of the Putin state both in terms of a reactionary social and family policy, and an aggressive foreign policy. In 2019, the Ukrainian church finally gained its formal independence, after the patriarch of all the Orthodox churches, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, gave his permission. It was a request from both the Ukrainian president and parliament that convinced him, he said. He therefore succumbed to worldly pressures, we must believe, more than he listened to spiritual revelations.
Russia responded with dismay, and both president, patriarch, god – we must believe – and everyone was alarmed. And for political reasons similar to those decided in Kyiv, Moscow responded by not accepting the new Ukrainian church. Yes, more than that, the Moscow Patriarchate took the dramatic step, breaking with the mother church in Istanbul, ancient Constantinople. And even more than that, the Moscow Patriarchate, the incomparably largest of the Orthodox Churches, broke with the national churches of the Orthodox world that recognized the new Kyiv Patriarchate. It was war in the Orthodox world. Christianity was on fire.
In principle, it was as bad as when Christianity took its first step towards what in the Russian self-image is the only true Christianity, towards Moscow. It happened with the church split between the east and west churches in 1054, the great schism. Then the unbelievers were left in Rome, while the true believers lived in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the center. But with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the control of the Muslims, the only true Christianity moved again. This time according to the Russian Church’s self-understanding, to its final abode, Moscow. Therefore, Moscow is the third Rome, the real and final home of Christendom. Such is the Russian self-understanding.
Can not allow Russian victory
It’s this one “Eternal truth” Kyiv now leaves with timpani and trumpets. The Ukrainians are leaving the Muscovite universe, which from Moscow’s right in all religious and ecclesiastical disputes, and are “pravoslavije” – the right word – which is orthodox in Russian. And the Ukrainian church is at best a misunderstanding, or at worst a heresy, seen from Moscow. Not so different from Ukraine itself – from Putin’s perspective.
In the real world is of course our lord a size in constant motion. In 2013, the patriarch of the Moscow Patriarchate, Kirill, had the support of 40 percent of Ukrainians. In 2018, after the Russian annexation of Crimea and support for the warfare of eastern Ukraine in 2014, support had fallen to 15 percent. One explanation for the dramatic fall is, for example, that Kirill in 2012 called the Putin regime a “miracle of God”, and that he wholeheartedly supports Putin’s aggressive foreign and war policies.
Putin marked doomsday
It’s basically not with a light heart many Ukrainians break with the Moscow Patriarchate. Orthodoxy is as much a part of the national identity of most Ukrainians as it is of the Russians. But from Kirill’s point of view, the war in Ukraine is also being colored with words as if it were also a holy war. The “sinful” and decadent West is a major enemy, and Kirill has justified military action in the Donbas with the need to save good souls from gay parades. He spoke before the outbreak of war about a confrontation in Ukraine that has “metaphysical” significance.
For also our lord has dug itself into the trenches of Russia and Ukraine. For safety’s sake in each.
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