Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA Late yesterday, July 8, 2025, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) found that the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) had signs of affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). This announcement was posted on the official website of DESS at https://dess.gov.ua/vyiavleno-oznaky-afiliyovanosti-kyivskoi-mytropolii-upts-z-rpts/. Yesterday’s findings were made pursuant to the controversial Ukrainian Law 3894, which, among other things, amended the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations.” A Google translation of the complete text of Law 3894, together with my comments, can be accessed at https://www.unifr.ch/orthodoxia/de/assets/public/files/Dokumentation/Anderson/LAW…
Browsing: Moscow
Source: Public Orthodoxy Sergei Chapnin Director of Communications at the OCSC of Fordham University and Chief Editor of The Gifts (Дары) Almanac As an Orthodox Christian witnessing the systematic persecution of clergy and faithful in Russia, I find myself compelled to break the deafening indifference within our American Orthodox communities. My heart grows heavier each day as friends—priests I’ve known for decades—suffer for their faithfulness to the Gospel of peace. Here, I must acknowledge that Ukrainians are dying daily under Russian aggression. At the same time, hundreds of pro-war priests from Russia actively support the war efforts in the occupied…
Source: Orthodox Times by Efi Efthymiou A comprehensive dialogue unfolded on the morning of Thursday, marking the final day of the International Conference on Theology, as the discussion centered on the theme of the Orthodox Church and its role in contemporary geopolitics. The panel featured distinguished participants, including Angelos Syrigos, Professor of International Law and Foreign Policy at Panteion University and Member of Parliament for Athens A constituency, alongside Evangelos Venizelos, former Deputy Prime Minister of Greece and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor of Constitutional Law of the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Emmanuel Karageorgoudis, Dean of the…
Source: Orthodox History by MATTHEW NAMEE Today, relations between the patriarchates of Moscow and Romania are tense: both lay claim to jurisdiction in the Republic of Moldova, which makes up about two-thirds of the historic region known as Bessarabia. The other third of Bessarabia is now in Ukraine, Budjak (Izmail and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi). In the Republic of Moldova, the Russian and Romanian patriarchates have had rival jurisdictions ever since the fall of the USSR, although things didn’t get really tense until very recently, when Russian-affiliated clergy began joining the Romanian jurisdiction (without canonical releases) as part of the fallout from the war…
Source: Moscow Patriarchate DECR Communication Service, 18.06.2024. On June 18, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ met with the heads and representatives of Protestant churches – members of the Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee (CICC). The meeting took place at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in St.Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow. Representing the Protestant denominations were Eduard Grabovenko, head bishop of the Russian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith and co-chair of the CCIC; Vladimir A. Provorov, Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia; Sergei V. Ryakhovsky, head bishop of the Russian United Fellowship of Christians of…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA As previously reported, Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and All Moldova wrote a surpisingly strong letter to Patriarch Kirill on September 5, 2023. (https://cubreacovblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/20/mitropolitul-vladimir-cantarean-ne-aflam-intr-o-situatie-de-faliment-institutional-mitropolia-basarabei-a-demonstrat-ca-este-o-forta-care-nu-mai-poate-fi-oprita/ ) The letter contained many grievances including the failure of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate to elect Archimandrite Filaret (Kuzmin) as a bishop as requested by the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Moldova (OCM). Some people speculated that such a strong letter might be the first step in the OCM leaving the Moscow Patriarchate. The Moscow Patriarchate acted quickly. At its Synod meeting on October 11, 2023, Archimandrite Filaret…
Source: Orthodox Public Affairs Committee The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC) decries the punishment of clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Kirill for opposing the war against Ukraine. Although there are tens of thousands of Russian Clergy, around three hundred have actively opposed the war and its support by Kirill. They have defied the Russian Church leader by substituting the word “peace” for “victory” in Putin-centric prayers mandated by the Russian Church Hierarchy. Some, like Father Ioann Koval have been defrocked and sought refuge under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Not only does Kirill and his cronies continue to compromise the integrity of the…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA On December 29, 2022, the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate decided in Journal Entry 121 to set a “bishops’ conference” for July 19, 2023. https://mospat.ru/ru/news/89905/ It is important to note that this is not the “bishops’ council” that been repeatedly postponed because “the international situation continues to hinder the arrival in Moscow of many members of the Bishops’ Council.” A Bishops’ Council is a decision-making body while a Bishops’ Conference is not. Rather this Bishops’ Conference is to be “a fraternal discussion of current issues of church life” with an agenda to be prepared by…
Source: Peter Anderson, Seattle USA Metropolitan Ioannikije of Montenegro and Primorye and Bishop Jovan of Pakrac and Slavonia, both hierarchs of the Serbian Patriarchate, are now in Russia. The primary purpose of their visit is to open the international festival “Serbian consolation to the Russian heart,” organized by the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University and held on October 18-28 in Moscow. The first evening of the festival is dedicated to the memory of Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro (1938-2020), predecessor of Metropolitan Ioannikije. It was therefore very logical that Metropolitan Ioannikije was invited to attend. The program also includes a film…
Source: Religion News Service While the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s letter is addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the letter speaks to concerns for the entire global Orthodox Christian community. By Marika Proctor (RNS) — Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has issued a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “first among equals” of Orthodox Christian leaders, asking Bartholomew to call Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, a teacher of heresy for his theological backing of the Ukraine war and deprive Kirill of his right to lead the Russian church. The letter was approved at a meeting of…
Source: Get Religion by Terry Mattingly This was a very important weekend in the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine and Russia — for those (including journalists) who believe that religious traditions and symbols matter as much as statements by government officials and headlines in Western media. At the center of the drama, of course, was the city of Kiev, as it is known in to Russians and many Ukrainians, and Kyiv, as it is known to many Ukrainians, as well as officials in the United States and the European Union. Here’s the quotation I keep thinking about, drawn…
Source: Christianity Today Possible manufacture of holy oil a signal of declaration of independence from Moscow patriarchate, while still opposing rival breakaway church. by JAYSON CASPER After 93 days of war, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) has definitively broken with Russia—maybe. In a council decision taken May 27, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)–affiliated body declared its “full self-sufficiency and independence,” condemning the three-month conflict as “a violation of God’s commandment: Thou shalt not kill!” Such a condemnation was not new. The day the invasion began, UOC-MP Metropolitan Onufriy called it a “repetition of the sin of Cain.” But in dry ecclesial language,…