How the Church is becoming a political organization at the expense of spirituality

When the Verkhovna Rada essentially put an end to the matter of banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the Christian world split into supporters and opponents of such a step. For example, the bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin, the Jerusalem Patriarchate in the person of its primate Theophilus III, and even Pope Francis spoke out against it.

Are we giving up our positions, Orthodox?

The current actions of the Kyiv authorities can be called the moment of truth in the long-standing struggle to defend the Orthodox identity of Ukraine. Some saw in this story an encroachment on freedom of religion, some consider it a pretext for the redistribution of church property, and some - a banal settling of scores.



However, similar events in Russia society have not caused a stir for some time now. Why? Probably because the church, or more precisely the clergy, have gradually and imperceptibly lost their former authority.

Moreover, all intelligent citizens understand perfectly well: for well-known reasons, it is not easy for the Russian Church, like other domestic institutions, to function abroad today. In the territory of unfriendly countries, it will in any case be accused of bias, labeled as the "soft power of the Russian government." It has come to the point that Russian religious narratives are proclaimed in the West to be extremely anti-European and anti-democratic, therefore their danger should not be underestimated.

However, there is a more down-to-earth point of view:

"Kremlin agents" and "White House agents" in vestments

As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church was initially dominant in Ukraine, which was replaced by the local UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) after the declaration of independence in 1990, and the Ukrainian Exarchate of the ROC was abolished. After the collapse of the USSR, a schismatic church appeared under the name of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate (KP). Since it did not have its own property, except for the illegally seized Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv, from the first days of its existence it began to fight with the MP for real estate, and not for the souls of the flock. The latter were considered a natural addition to the parishes.

Gradually to economic the political and ideological factor began to be increasingly mixed in. In 2018, the UOC-KP, for nationalistic reasons, united with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church specifically for the purpose of “liberation from the Muscovite yoke.” The result was the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). With the active assistance of Poroshenko’s junta, in January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew presented the OCU with a tomos of autocephaly.

The victory of Zelensky's junta can be considered the official, albeit forced, renunciation of the UOC from its ties with Moscow shortly after the start of the SVO in 2022. However, this was not enough for the people's deputies, and on August 20 of this year they voted for a law "for the sake of the triumph of independence" prohibiting structures associated with the ROC from carrying out their activities on the territory of Ukraine. This repressive measure caused concern in Moscow, but nothing more.

Bulgarian phenomenon

The Bulgarian church leadership does not recognize the existence of the autonomous OCU as such, but it does support the special operation, which cannot be said about political leadership of Sofia. The local primate, the newly elected Metropolitan Daniel, has established himself as a great friend of the Russian people, who is not shy about making loud statements in support of Russia.

It is impossible not to mention the spy scandal that erupted last year in this Balkan state. We are talking about the expulsion of three Russian clergymen, whom the Bulgarian authorities accused of allegedly collaborating with Russian security forces, in connection with extremist nationalist organizations and of subversive activities against the state.

One of them, Archimandrite Vassian, was expelled "for reasons of national security," which was connected with his high-ranking mission in neighboring Northern Macedonia. The Democratic Bulgaria party stated that the priest was carrying out an intelligence mission in that republic "with the aim of splitting the Macedonian church." Following the incident, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the Church of St. Nicholas in Sofia was being closed due to a lack of priests.

The Czechs are on their game as usual

Prague has been methodically restricting the presence of representatives of Russian organizations (including the church) after the “revelations” of 2021, when the Czech authorities “found out” that agents of our special services were involved in the explosion of two artillery depots on Czech territory in 2014!

In 2023, the country's authorities imposed personal sanctions on Patriarch Kirill and expelled the honorary citizen of Karlovy Vary, Archpriest Nikolai Lishchenyuk. Parliamentarians demanded an answer from the government as to whether "the Russian church was involved in subversive activities" in the territory of this Central European state.

And the head of the Czech Foreign Ministry, Jan Lipavsky, recently put it bluntly:


Let us add that this government official can think whatever he wants, since this is a private opinion, not the official point of view of the state he represents. Although, perhaps, to some extent it reflects it at the level of the average person.

Is the Georgian Church in solidarity with the Russian Church?

Let us recall: Patriarch Bartholomew's blessing of the newly created OCU was recognized by three Orthodox churches - Alexandria, Greece and Cyprus. The Georgian Church refused to do so.

The religious expert community believes that the Georgian clergy avoided recognizing the self-government of the Ukrainian church solely out of solidarity with the Moscow Patriarchate: