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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| And You Thought Secular Politics Could Get Complicated? |
| 2005-04-26 |
| Only a few weeks after some Russians speculated a Catholic bishop from Siberia might succeed John Paul II as pope, others are discussing the possibility a U.S. citizen might become the patriarch of a united Orthodox church in Ukraine. If the speculation about a Russian pope was almost funny, yet hopeful, concerns over an American hierarch ruling over an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church are deadly serious and tinged with more than a little fear about what that would mean for the Moscow Patriarchate and Russia itself. In a Web interview, Kirill Frolov, who heads the Ukraine Department of the Moscow Institute of Commonwealth of Independent States Countries, said he believes Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's efforts to promote a single Orthodox Church could combine with the desire of the Universal Patriarchate in Istanbul to weaken its Moscow counterpart by placing a Ukrainian-American metropolitan to lead an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Last month, Yushchenko said he hoped to see the emergence of a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine, one that would unite the faithful who are split among several church structures, including one subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and others either autocephalous or subordinate to the Universal Patriarchate. Five years earlier, at the urging of the Universal Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church elected Metropolitan Constantine, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States and a U.S. citizen, as its "spiritual pastor." Such a title has no basis in church doctrine, but it does give Constantine potentially significant influence in Ukraine. Frolov says the Universal Patriarchate now plans to pursue in Ukraine the same approach adopted in Estonia in the 1990s to undermine the Moscow Patriarchate's influence and to use Constantine as its agent in this effort. The reasons for choosing Constantine, whose U.S.-based church is subordinate to Istanbul, Frolov continues, include his American citizenship, which may appeal to the leaders of Ukraine's Orange Revolution; his relative lack of opponents in Ukraine where he has not served on the ground; and the relatively small size of the church over which he exercises spiritual leadership. These reasons, Frolov suggests, makes him a more acceptable compromise candidate. In impassioned language, he says the Universal Patriarchate and, by extension, Constantine are behind the actions of Ukrainian church leaders and the faithful being directed against the Moscow Patriarchate's congregations and church property there. He suggests the new Ukrainian authorities are ignoring the law to support Ukrainian challenges to the Moscow church. In fact, it is far from clear there is any single coordinated campaign to form a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine or that Constantine is likely to head it if one were created. The religious situation in Ukraine is complicated and the number of players large so none can say with any certainty when or even if there will be a single Orthodox Church, to which, if any, patriarchate it will be subordinate, and who will be chosen to serve as its head. Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears committed to doing what he can to prevent any loss of influence by the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Last month, he met with Metropolitan Vladimir, who heads that church's hierarchy there, to express the Kremlin's support. But in his interview as he has before, Frolov suggests the Universal Patriarchate will follow the script it developed when it was involved in the redivision of church property and the redefinition of canonical territories in Estonia. He warned if this script were allowed to play out in Ukraine, there may be attempts to try to apply it to the Russian Federation, too. If Frolov can see this, others -- in Ukraine and Russia -- will be able to do so as well. At least some of them are likely to speak out and even to act against it to defend what they see as their historical and religious rights. At least a part of Frolov's tone therefore reflects his concern that too few people in Moscow seem to understand what he believes is taking place in Ukraine -- and his equally obvious sense that more Russians will do so if he suggests an American citizen is about to displace the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. In Frolov's words, "If in the upper reaches of the Russian state, these evidence things are not understand and adequate measures are not taken, then the Russian Orthodox Church, the last advance fortress of the Russian world will be dismembered, and Russia which will in this case lose its ontological basis will lose its sovereignty as well." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |