The Orthodox War: Moscow vs. Constantinople

Last month as many of my readers know, I was in the Ukraine for vacation.  On my very first full day in the country, I went on a walking tour in Kiev.  Our guide took us around the main areas in the centre of Kiev.  Eventually we arrived at a little monastery called St. Michael’s Monastery.  She told us that we could go inside the main Church for 5 minutes then come back.  I informed her that I was in shorts and it wasn’t appropriate.  She said that this church doesn’t care what you wear.  I know that in 2014 when I was in Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia they wouldn’t let you in unless you had pants on.

I went in, looked around and came out.  I saw some young monks but they didn’t seem to care.  I left the Church then we continued the tour.  Although it wasn’t included in the tour, our guide told us about a grand monastery in Kiev called Kiev Perchersk Lavra.  She said that it was the “Vatican of Orthodoxy”.

A few days later, it was evening at the hotel.  The next morning, I was off to Kiev Perchersk Lavra to see the “Vatican of Orthodoxy”.  I asked the people at the front desk if I needed to wear pants as St. Michael’s didn’t seem to care.  The guy at the desk told me that St. Michael’s is part of the Kiev Patriarchate and they don’t really care what you wear in their churches.  On the other hand, Kiev Perchersk Lavra is part of the Moscow Patriarchate and they want men to wear pants and women to wear long skirts.

Over the trip I learned quite a bit about the two different churches fighting for dominance in Ukraine.  To be honest, it didn’t seem to matter to most Ukrainians as they weren’t religious.  A Ukrainian friend told me after the vacation that one of the reasons that Church attendance is so low in Ukraine is because this feud between the two Patriarchates has somewhat discredited Orthodoxy in the eyes of the laity.  Why go to an Orthodox Church when this might not even be an Orthodox Church?

The Kiev Patriarchate is unrecognized by all of the high ranking bishops in the Orthodox world.  However, recently the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has made kind gestures toward recognizing the Kiev Patriarchate as a valid Orthodox Church.  The Patriarch of Moscow is angry since this problem is within his canonical territory and doesn’t want a foreign Orthodox leader interfering.  The Russian Patriarch said that he would no longer do joint liturgies, or pray for the Patriarch Bartholomew in the liturgical diptychs until he backs away from his position.  It’s not quite a schism but it’s very serious.

Either way, why am I as a Catholic bringing this up?  Well, studying church history, the split between our churches has always been of interest.  For a couple hundred years after the split, there was hope of reunion.  The Second Council of Lyons and the Council of Florence were valiant attempts at reunion but ultimately failed.  Since then, there has been little attempt to reunite us.  This is mainly because we’ve both had problems.  The Fall of Constantinople in the East and the so called reformation in the West have made it difficult and that was only the beginning.  This doesn’t even get into communism or the French Revolution.  Both sides need to pick up their own garbage before any further reunion talks take place.

I won’t lie, reunion talks are a long way off.  I’m also not going to pretend that we don’t have key differences that need to be discussed.  To deny that would be to disrespect both faiths.  These talks can only resume when both houses are in order.  I hope that we fix our liturgy, reinforce Catholic teaching on false religions and usury, and convince Protestants that Luther made a mistake 501 years ago.  The Orthodox Church has a different laundry list but it’s just as long, with this jurisdictional blunder being the most recent.  I hope that we both one day can get our houses in order and unite.  We could destroy Islam, Hinduism and even evangelize China, destroying communism in the process.  We could restore Christianity to Constantinople and take back the churches that the Turks stole.  It may not even be a problem as the Turks may be converted at that point.  We were united for over a thousand years; it’s not impossible to unite again.  The Union is a long way off, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for it.