Ukrainian church to receive Independence: Russia might escalate

UKRAINE - In Brief 13 Oct 2018 by Dmytro Boyarchuk
I’m not a big expert in church affairs, but on October 11 there was a historical event in clerical world which will have far-reaching consequences for secular life in Ukraine. A bit of history to start. More than 300 years ago (1648-1657) there was a big war between Ukraine and Poland. National leader (Hetman) of Ukraine Bohdan Khmelnytsky on those days decided that making alliance with Russians is a good idea to defend Ukrainian territory. Hetman Khmelnytsky died very soon after alliance with Russians was created and Russian establishment ‘integrated’ part of modern Ukrainian territory into Russian Empire for several centuries. As a part of this ‘integration’ Ukrainian church was subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church. From those days Patriarchs (clerical CEOs) of Ukrainian church have been appointed from Russia. Situation did not change even after the USSR collapsed and Ukraine obtained independence. Church and all issues related to clerical life in Ukraine have been dependent on Moscow. Important, in soviet times the Russian Orthodox Church had been strongly integrated into the KGB system. Soviet leaders realized that total destruction of religion (in line with the communist ideology) is not a realistic task and they decided to take clerical world under control. Priests have been required to closely cooperate with soviet secret service otherwise they ‘traveled to Siberia’. Modern Russia inherited this tradition and the Russian Orthodox Church is effectively an acting subdivision of Federal Security Service of Russia. This close cooperation became too obvious to public when war at the eastern Donbas started. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church have been aggre...

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