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Russian press warns of ‘Orthodox war’ over Church split
MOSCOW, Oct 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Russian media on Tuesday warned of one of
the gravest crises in the history of the Orthodox Church after the Moscow
branch announced it would break ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical
Patriarchate.
The rupture on Monday came after the Istanbul-based clerics ruled to grant
independence to the Ukrainian Church, a move Russia has long campaigned
against.
Constantinople’s decision last week ended more than 300 years of Moscow’s
control over Orthodox churches in Ukraine and affects millions of believers
in Russia and Ukraine.
The religious split comes amid deep political tensions, with Ukraine
fighting a Moscow-backed uprising in its east.
RBK business daily warned of a “war between (Holy) Synods” on its front
page, referring to the Churches’ ruling bodies.
A Russian expert on religion, Roman Lunkin, told RBK that Moscow’s move
has created “two warring Orthodox worlds”.
Izvestia, a Kremlin-loyal daily, quoted the Moscow Church’s warning of a
threat “of the destruction of the unity of global Orthodoxy”.
Monday will enter Orthodox history as “one of its darkest days,” wrote
Izvestia.
The newspaper said the split between the Constantinople and Moscow
Churches — the highest-status and largest Orthodox Churches respectively —
followed on from the two greatest upheavals in Christian Church history.
The front-page article referenced the Protestant Reformation of 1517
sparked by German theologian Martin Luther, and the schism between the
Eastern and Western Christian Churches in 1054.
Now each of the branches of the Orthodox Church “will have to choose with
whom to be — Constantinople or the Russian Orthodox Church,” Izvestia wrote.
Media including government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote with regret
that Russians will no longer be able to go to pray at Mount Athos in Greece,
a major destination for pilgrims and tourists that is under the jurisdiction
of Constantinople.
The Ukrainian president and lawmakers have backed independence for the
country’s currently divided Orthodox Church and see it as striking a blow
against Moscow’s influence in Ukraine.
Relations broke down during the Maidan uprising of 2014 followed by
Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the subsequent separatist conflict in the
east.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s head, Patriarch Kirill, is seen as a close
ally of President Vladimir Putin.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the Kremlin was
watching developments “very carefully and with a great deal of worry”.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko meanwhile said the Russian Orthodox
Church was following the Kremlin down a path of self-imposed isolation.
“Just as Russia opposed itself to the entire world community with its
aggressive imperial policy, now the Russian Church is on the path of self-
isolation and conflict with the world Orthodoxy,” he wrote on his Facebook
page.
BSS/AFP/RY/1809 hrs