As many people know, last year I wrote about the civil war in the Orthodox Church between Moscow and Constantinople. This whole argument is whether or not the Ukrainian Church will be autonomous or will be subject to Moscow. The Primate of the new Ukrainian Church is Epiphanius, while the head of the Ukrainian Church in communion with Moscow is Metropolitan Onufriy.
Recently some new developments have happened. Two more Orthodox churches have joined Constantinople. Last month the Orthodox Church of Greece, headed by the Archbishop of Athens supported Constantinople’s position on the new Ukrainian Church. Even more recently Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria joined Constantinople in supporting the independent Ukrainian Church. The Russian Church has ceased commemorating the Archbishop of Athens and the Patriarch of Alexandria in their liturgy.
The Patriarch of Alexandria is a very small player in the Orthodox world. He presides over about 300,000 members in Egypt. This is not to be confused with the Coptic Patriarch who presides over millions of members in Egypt and is also ironically named Theodore. I know this is all confusing, but just keep in mind that the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Alexandria is a small player. The Archbishop of Athens is a much bigger player as the nation of Greece is majority Orthodox. I know that this is only three churches but it’s growing larger. I expect more churches to follow in the coming years.
The only Orthodox priest that I was ever close with was a ROCOR priest and he said that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was a nobody who presides over 40 parishes in a huge non-Christian city. His view of Patriach Filaret(who he simply referred to as Denysenko as he was the primate at the time) was also equally negative and said that out of the 16,000 Orthodox parishes in the Ukraine, he only controls 4,000. He seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the number of parishes.
Why am I as a Catholic talking about this? I don’t have a dog in this race. I first of all want to say that I care about the Ukraine as I come from a Ukrainian background. My ancestors are Byzantine Catholics; Byzantine Catholics make up about 8% of the population in the Ukraine today. They live mostly in Western Ukraine and will be relatively unaffected by all this, but it’s still the land of my ancestors. If you go back far enough before the Union of Brest in 1596, my ancestors would have been Orthodox.
The second reason is because this movement for a new Ukrainian Church doesn’t seem to come from a good place. It seems to come from Ukrainian nationalism and not from a love for Jesus Christ or the Orthodox Church. Ukrainian nationalism is obsessed with everything anti-Russian. I’ve seen this first hand. Ukrainian nationalists are happy with anything that goes against Russia. American Evangelical missionaries are hard at work in the Ukraine and are welcomed by the Ukrainian nationalists. Why? Because if it’s American it’s anti-Russian and therefore kosher.
The last reason that I want to talk about this issue is that it reflects a problem similar to what is found in the Catholic Church. Like the Catholic Church, the main enemies of the Orthodox Church aren’t external but internal. The Ukraine is an extremely secular country. A Ukrainian that I know who is Orthodox and attends weekly services in a ROCOR church told me that only 3% of Ukrainians attend church every week. It makes one wonder why two ecclesial bodies fight over parishes when barely any Ukrainians attend them. I noticed this last summer when I was in Ukraine. They didn’t seem to be interested in religion at all. I suppose this quarrel shows the fallen nature of humanity more than anything.
So that’s my take on the issue. It’s all pretty depressing and reflects a similar problem in the Catholic Church, though involving different issues. I know that I have Eastern Orthodox readers so feel free to comment. Also, feel free to correct me if I got any of the details wrong. God bless!
You write that your ancestors before the Union of Brest would have been Orthodox.
But those Orthodox for some 45 years after the Reunion Council of Florence (1439) would have been Catholic. It was afterwards they fell back into Schism.
Hello Mr. Likoudis.
I’ve listened to some of your talks on YouTube and own your book on Vatican II.
To my knowledge the Union of Florence was more of a formality than a real union. With the exception of a few of the Greek bishops(Metropolitan Bessarion being one of them), most of them were just doing a political favour for the Emperor. To my knowledge it was really only enforced in Constantinople and when the Turks sacked the city in 1453, it was essentially repudiated because the politician enforcing it was dead and a different regime was in control. The Greek bishops now being under the Turkish sultan(who didn’t care about their specific Christian theology) were no longer pressured to go along with the union that they never really believed in in the first place.
Based on what I know the only true Greek Catholics from the whole Florentine episode were the Emperor, Metropolitan Bessarion, and maybe a couple other bishops. Although the union had officially fallen into disuse after 1453, it was officially repudiated in 1484 at a Greek synod.
The Union of Brest on the other hand produced strong Catholics that endure to this day(over 400 years later) and even endured horrific communist persecution starting in 1946 with the pseudo-synod of Lviv.
That’s my knowledge of the situation but I’ll admit that I haven’t read as much of it as you have.
I have an Orthodox follower named Orangehunter who sometimes comments. If you see this Orangehunter did you want to give your opinion here?
Thanks for the comment Mr. Likoudis and God bless.
Allan
Dear Allan,
I agree that Ukraine, like many other countries is suffering from massive secularization, however the statement “not interested in religion at all” is a bit of a generalization. I too have been to Ukraine and say many pilgrims attending at Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra in Kyiv.
The UGCC Marian Center at Zarvanytsia is also massively attended. I went to Liturgies in L’viv and Chernivtsi where there was hardly any room to stand, and there were no pews.
My connection with several Redemptorists priests of the L’viv Province also prove a similar point, that many who are sent “over seas” to Canada/USA end up returning to Ukraine because their parishes have more people, especially younger families, in attendance, and that ministry in North America is to quote one hieromonk “depressing.”
Recently Patriarch Sviatoslav and Pope Francis established a new Eparchy in the territory of Bukovyna/Chernivtsi oblast, which was up until recently considered “solely” Orthodox.
Also, small correction, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is Epifanij. Denysenko is defunct, he was barred from re-election when the new church was formed from the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate.
God bless!
*saw not say
Hello Mr. Predy
We had different experiences. Kiev Percheska Lavra was almost empty when I was there. My family was pretty much the only people there. There were a few others but not a lot. Apparently only 3 of the 20 or so churches at the monastery are used. They don’t have enough monks to make full use of them.
I’m unaware of how religious the Catholic portion of Ukraine is. I spent a few days in Lviv which is a Catholic city. I was there on a Sunday and wanted to compare the atmosphere to Kiev and Odessa(the other cities I was in on Sunday) but it turns out that it was a holiday(Apple Feast) so the churches were overflowing. It wasn’t a typical Sunday so I don’t know. Regardless, less than 10% of Ukraine is Catholic. They may be more religious than the Orthodox(70-80% of Ukraine) but they’re still a small player. I remember reading an article about how the Catholics in Belarus were far more devout than their Orthodox brethren. But again, they’re a small player.
I also noticed a flurry of Evangelical groups. Americans are trying to Evangelicalize them just like they’re doing in South America. They just had a late start there because missionary work was banned in the communist era.
The country felt as secular as a Western European nation, though there was no hatred for Christianity like you’d find in France or Germany, only indifference to it.
But I was only there for 2.5 weeks in August 2018. Perhaps other areas are more religious. I certainly didn’t see the whole country.
Thanks for commenting on this blog and feel free to comment anytime.
God bless,
Allan
Thanks for the response. I did however notice that you did not correct the portion of your article where you incorrectly refer to Filaret Denysenko as Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The Metropolitan is Epifaniy Dumenko. Is there a reason you did not correct this?
Thanks.
Oh sorry, kinda forgot about it. At the time of the conversation with the ROCOR priest Denysenko was the key player.
But I just forgot to correct it and will do.
Thanks and God bless.
Sorry, I was unaware of the development that Denysenko had broken away from the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and resumed control of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate. You can’t win them all.
No, you are correct, if even accidentally. Part of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has broken away and resumed function as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate under Denysenko.
Making the two “canonical” Orthodox bodies currently in Ukraine as the Russian Orthodox Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate) and the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (Patriarchate of Constantinople).
Okay, I made the change and now I’m even more confused because of this comment. Can you describe the whole situation if you don’t mind?
If in your post you are referring to the recent Unification Council that took place earlier in the year which united the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian-Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate and several bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church into the NEW Orthodox Church of Ukraine than you were incorrect. A new Metropolitan was selected as Primate of the Church, Epifaniy. The Patriarch of Constantinople presented him with the decree (Tomos) of autocephaly. Denysenko was a figure head.
I just saw an article however, here: https://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/orthodox/uoc_kp/76218
Which states that Denysenko has now rejected the Union into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Tomos of Constantinople and will continue to function with his non-canonical Church. However only 2 other bishops supported his move and most of the 40 odd bishops remain in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine under Epifaniy.
This poses a unique problem as Denysenko has certain legal rights and priveleges over banking and title information that had not yet been transferred over to the new church.
Okay, that makes sense. So the churches merged, Denysenko wasn’t made the leader so he went rogue but still owns a lot of assets?
What a huge mess.