Church Tensions in Ukraine on Russian Minds on Orthodox Easter
Orthodox Easter is being celebrated in Russia amid tensions after a Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church - accused of ideological ties with Moscow and of backing Russia's military actions in Ukraine - was expelled from two places of worship in Kyiv last week.
Some churchgoers in Rostov in Yaroslavl Region, who were being with holy water at one of the town's many picturesque churches, told Reuters they saw the hand of the West behind the tensions, which they saw as echoes of the split in Russia-Ukraine relations over :
"We would visit (Ukraine), they would visit us - we were all hospitable (to one another). I don’t know what changed and why. It's all the Americans' doing. I cannot think of anything else," 73-year-old Galina Martynenko said, adding: "And now they are doing it to the Churches. Why are they destroying them? Why do they want that?"
Others lamented both the ecclesiastical split and the ongoing military action taking place between the two countries and said that people in the town - one of Russia's oldest - had had relatives killed in action.
Mikhail, a priest in the Dormition Cathedral of the Rostov Kremlin, told Reuters that in both cases a "war" was being waged, but that Russia "will win" on both counts.
Another clergyman, Protopriest Roman, said that "all Orthodox states will unite in one ocean which will keep the whole world in fear", referring to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as "Great", "Small" and "White" Russias respectively.
Theologist Andrei Kurayev told Reuters that the argument boiled down to a small number of factors, including a fear in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of being perceived as "splitters" from the wider Church, a reliance on the belief that the "Canons" were on their side, and unjustified confidence in Moscow that Ukraine's Orthodox faithful would automatically side with the Russian branch of the Church, in much the same way as the Kremlin had expected a majority of Ukrainians to greet it with open arms when it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
The evictions in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, stoked already spiralling tensions between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on one side and Ukraine's government and large parts of society on the other.
Kyiv accuses the UOC of preserving ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has supported Moscow's decision to launch what it casts as "special military operation" in Ukraine. The UOC says it broke all associations with the Russian Church in May 2022.
Reuters
