Things have become worse in the situation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Constantinople. In the interview above(which is short and I recommend everyone watch), the Orthodox bishop says that Russians who go on vacation in Turkey cannot receive communion in the churches there. This is a pretty serious situation.
Not being a member of their Church, I don’t want to say whether this is canonically valid or not but this new Ukrainian Church comes from a dark place. It comes from Ukrainian nationalism that became dominant in Ukraine after the Soviet Union fell, though it existed long before.
The whole world saw Putin annex Crimea. In the West people just talked about how bad Putin was for doing that. What they don’t know is that most people in Crimea wanted out of Ukraine now that Ukrainian nationalists have taken control. Similar movements have arisen in the Donbass.
What few people in the West know is the nature of the new Ukrainian government. Being the geek that I am, I knew about the sketchy nationalist government in control of Ukraine. However, despite how much you read about it, it’s one of those things that I couldn’t fully believe until I saw it, and boy did I ever see it this summer. Ukraine essentially has a Nazi government. Two months ago I was in Kiev talking to people. They absolutely loath Putin, Stalin, the USSR, and anything Russian. I can at least understand this sentiment among the Ukrainian people. Ukraine and Russia are cultural siblings but the older sibling has often treated the younger sibling very poorly. What I don’t understand is the pro-Nazi sentiment.
Hitler is spoken about in either neutral or positive terms. The national hero of Ukraine is the nationalist Nazi Stepan Bandera who you can find a large picture of just off Maidan Square. His picture is everywhere. There was a big picture of Bandera with some writing in Ukrianian. I don’t understand Ukrainian so I took a picture with my iPad and showed it to the receptionist in the hotel and asked her to translate. While she was translating this for me, it looked like she was in ecstasy. She spoke of Bandera like a young evangelical would talk about Jesus Christ. She also mentioned that she was half Russian so I at least thought she’d be a little more critical of this movement, but she wasn’t in the slightest.
I went on several tours and the guides would talk in glowing terms about the “Revolution of Dignity”. People who died in this revolution(which wasn’t really a revolution) are treated like saints. Pictures of them are everywhere and monuments to this revolution are all over Kiev. The first person to die was a young immigrant from Armenia. He wanted to support the country he had adopted so he took to the streets and got himself killed. His picture can be found all over the Ukraine. Here’s a mural of him in Kiev:
His picture is all over the country. The man who threw is life away for this stupid Nazi government. Some hero, eh?
In Canada we have a lot of ethnic Ukrainians. My mother comes from a mostly Ukrainian background and Ukrainian is her first language. This heritage is also where I get my Catholicism from as 8% of Ukrainians are Catholic. I have a lot of Ukrainian friends and met a lot of nice people when I was there. I love the Ukraine. However, Ukrainian nationalism is demonic. It produced the new Nazi government that they have and it’s the same movement that this national Church arose from.
Does Constantinople really want to support this Church? The Ukraine isn’t even a religious country. Orthodoxy is as important to the average Ukrainian as Judaism was to the founders of the State of Israel. A piece of cultural identity to be cherished but not something to be followed or taken seriously. I don’t think that the Orthodox Church of Constantinople has taken this into consideration.
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