Browsing: Byzantine world

Source: The Washingon Post By David Stern and Amie Ferris-Rotman KIEV, Ukraine — For centuries, the golden cupolas of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery and catacombs have been a refuge of tranquility and prayer in Orthodox Christianity. It is now caught in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as it spills into the world of faith. What is at stake is whether the Ukrainian church can formally break away from Russia’s control and become a new autonomous branch among Orthodoxy’s more than a dozen churches. But it also reflects the wider battlegrounds of nationalism and political identity that helped touch off a separatist uprising…