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THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, JUST-WAR THEORY, AND THE INVASION OF UKRAINE

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Spirit of Abilene By PHILIP LeMASTERS The centrality of peace to the worship and spiritual vision of Eastern Orthodox Christianity magnifies the tragedy of the invasion of Ukraine.  Petitions for peace abound in Orthodox services, including for deliverance from “the sword, foreign invasion, and civil war.” The Church prays regularly for “the peace of the whole world,” as well as for the liberation of captives and for people “in exile, in harsh labor, and…in every kind of affliction, necessity, or distress.”  Every Sunday service includes a petition for God to grant peace “to all civil authorities, to our armed…

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Image: Artem Hvozdkov / Getty Images Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kyiv, Ukraine.

‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’: Ukrainian Orthodox Church Ruptures Relations with Russia

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

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,…

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Patriarch Kirill I with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in 2018 in Moscow’s Red Square.Credit...Alexander Nemenov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Russian Orthodox Leader at the Core of Putin’s Ambitions

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The New York Times Patriarch Kirill I has provided spiritual cover for the invasion of Ukraine, reaping vast resources for his church in return. Now, in an extraordinary step, the E.U. is threatening him with sanctions. By Jason Horowitz As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolded, Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, had an awkward Zoom meeting with Pope Francis. The two religious leaders had previously worked together to bridge a 1,000-year-old schism between the Christian churches of the East and West. But the meeting, in March, found them on opposing sides of a chasm. Kirill…

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Moscow Orthodox Church Dismissing Priests For Supporting Ukrainian Church

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Eurasia Review By Paul Goble Despite its efforts to position itself as a Ukrainian church rather than a church of the country that is invading Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is now showing its true colors by dismissing from pastoral service priests that have denounced the invasion and cooperated with the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The number of such cases is still small and is being handled not by the Russian metropolitanate of Kyiv but by other UOC MP bishoprics, something that keeps this development out of the public eye and likely reflects the individual…

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THE MORAL DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIAN WORLD: PUTIN, KIRILL, AND THE TRIBUNAL OF HISTORY

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, Uncategorized

Source: Public Orthodoxy by Paul L. Gavrilyuk In Mariupol, Russian rockets destroy a maternity ward, wounding dozens. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev) blesses the Russian troops. In the same town of Mariupol, Russian bombs kill hundreds of children and elderly in the Drama Theater. Putin’s Patriarch has the gall to describe the war as a “metaphysical struggle” against Western values. A Russian missile destroys a building in Odessa, burying a mother with her three-month-old infant alive. Obedient to his master in the Kremlin, Gundiaev justifies the war as an act of self-defense. Many western observers are puzzled. Aren’t the troops…

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Image: Orthodox World Council of Churches pre-assembly meeting (Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations)

HAVE WE HIT ROCK BOTTOM? REFLECTIONS OF A NOT-SO-INNOCENT BYSTANDER [witnessing the present decline of the Orthodox Church as an institution]

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Public Orthodoxy by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis There are very few occasions in our lives—critical, pivotal events—that are truly life-shattering. We Orthodox describe them as kairos moments. World War II was one of these. In my lifetime, there was 9/11. Institutions and individuals are defined by such moments. We might recall how the Roman Catholic Church failed to stand up to Mussolini and Hitler; thankfully there was the selflessness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship. Or we might remember the hostility and conspiracy spawned by the attack on the Twin Towers; thankfully there was the selflessness of first…

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STATEMENT OF ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY ON THE INVASION OF UKRAINE

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, OCL News, Orthodox Christian Laity

PRESS RELEASE WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 28, 2022 — The Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) denounces the horrific and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military under the orders of President Putin and the attempt to bestow religious legitimacy to the war by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The indiscriminate and unjustifiable bombing of innocent civilian population centers including schools and hospitals, the rapes, mass executions and war crimes committed by Russian soldiers have shocked the entire world. Millions have been forced to flee their homes as refugees from a brutal war in which Orthodox Christians have been ordered by…

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Eastern Orthodox Primates gathered in Crete to prepare for the pan-Orthodox Council, June 17, 2016. | GOA/DIMITRIOS PANAGOS. Photo courtesy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

What if the 9 Orthodox patriarchates got involved in the Ukraine-Russia war?

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Christian Post Did President Putin have a legitimate, legal, or moral basis for invading Ukraine beginning on Feb. 24, 2022, and going on to date? Was Putin’s aggression against Ukraine as a nation and its people justified under the “casus belli” laid down by Hugo Grotius in his book, On the Law of War and Peace, in the 16th century? Or was Putin’s actions in killing indiscriminately Ukrainian people and razing entire cities in Ukraine morally justified under Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy of war? It is a fact that the Ukrainian government did nothing to invite the genocidal acts of Putin.…

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Ukrainian soldiers enjoy a break from the fighting to bring Easter food for a blessing in front of an Orthodox monstery in Kharkiv at the weekend. Credit: ALAMY

Church divisions in Ukraine deepen after Putin ignores Easter truce

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By on Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories, Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Church Times by JONATHAN LUXMOORE Ukrainian Orthodox head puts pressure on Russian Church THE Primate of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), has called for the removal of the Russian Orthodox presence in his country. His hardened stance was prompted by the refusal of President Putin to agree a truce for the celebration of Easter, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow charge to the Russian people to make their country “invincible”. “The Ukrainian state is fighting to protect its territorial integrity and defending its information space,” Metropolitan Epiphany said. “This is why we must also talk about protecting Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful from Russian influence. . . As long…

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Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Metropolitan Onufriy, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, visit Amman in 2019. Credit: RISU.

Orthodoxy, and Easter, in Ukraine

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The Pillar JD Flynn First, it is not yet Easter for most Christians living in Ukraine, where the Battle of Donbas is raging in the east, and in the west, the city of Lviv saw its first missile-strike casualties on Monday. Ukraine has defended Kyiv and the fighting has shifted, but the war is far from over. Amid the humanitarian and social crisis that will envelop Ukraine from years to come, there has also occasioned a serious ecclesiastical crisis for the 70% of Ukrainians who are Orthodox Christians. Orthodoxy in Ukraine has two hierarchies, and two sets of dioceses and…

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Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia during a ceremonial service at the Cathedral Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Belgrade. (RIA Novosti / Sergey Pyatakov)

Russian Orthodox leader backs war in Ukraine, divides faith

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The Washington Post Patriarch Kirill has angered many priests by echoing the language Vladimir Putin uses to justify the Ukraine invasion By Jeanne Whalen He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine. Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one…

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The Kremlin Playbook 3: Keeping the Faith

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, Uncategorized

Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Originally published on February 22, 2022 WRITTEN BY Donatienne Ruy, Director, Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy Heather A. Conley Former Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic; and Former Director, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program Marlene Laruelle Director and Research Professor, George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Tengiz Pkhaladze Associate Professor and Head of the BA Program in Political Science, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs Elizabeth H. Prodromou Faculty Member and Faculty Director of the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School at Tufts University Majda Ruge Senior Policy…

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